Maid for Fighting
by MagicMinstrel
Summary: When Princess Annabel loses her beloved Elliot, her best maid Emily is there to pick up the pieces. But when Emily falls for the charming Ben Finn, can she follow her own heart whilst helping to fix Annabel's? Rated T just in case, Unknown x Ben Finn
1. Maid an escape

"We have to leave, Princess."

Walter's concerned tone was falling on the princess' deaf ears as she lay on top of Elliot's final resting place. Her long-term lover was now buried in the soil, murdered by her own brother's order, the tyrannical King Logan. Her tears watered the ground, as her most loyal friends tried to pull her away.

"Please, Princess, we have to leave-"

"No," Screamed the princess, "I'm not leaving him, not here!"

My heart ached for Princess Annabel. I had never seen the princess like this before, she'd always been so strong, but now, she was broken and needed to be fixed. As Walter and Annabel's beloved dog stayed by her side and mourned with her, I walked up to Annabel's bedroom to find Jasper. He was by her bed, packing up some of the princess' most precious items- her mother's old jewellery, her father's old letters to people and some old, small paintings of her family.

He must have heard me come in, as he sighed and said, "I'm really going to miss this place, Miss Emily."

"Me too," I replied, "There was always something magical about Bowerstone Castle, though recently, I haven't felt anything magical."

Jasper laughed at my remark; though I'm sure he felt the same.

"So, is the princess' best maid going to follow us along our quest?" Jasper asked.

"Oh yes," I replied, before saying in a quieter voice, "Elliot was a dear friend… I'll do anything to make sure his death wasn't in vain."

We continued to pack silently together with the rain beginning to lash at the window, until Walter came in to announce we were going now. So, since it was our job, Jasper and I carried the small amount of luggage out into the pouring rain and ran down the steps, following Walter to where the princess stood, opening the doors to the final resting place of the former King and Queen.

Everyone was silent, as we descended the steps to the tombs, nobody dared to speak. The room opened up into a giant candle-lit underground chamber, and at the end of the chamber stood a large statue of a beautiful woman clutching her hands to her chest, next to two golden tombs. We walked further down towards the statue, and Walter walked further up, then went to the right of the woman statue, looking at the bricks.

"Walter... What are you doing?" asked Annabel, slowly walking towards him.

"Just finding something… ha! Got it!" He cried, before pushing a brick further into the wall.

There was a slight pause, before a deep rumbling noise emerged, and the ground began to shake. Then, suddenly, the woman's arms fell from her chest and out, revealing an intriguing object in the palm.

"What is that?" I asked Walter.

"A guild seal. Try picking it up Annabel, you've been training for this your whole life; you're ready."

Annabel, slowly and tentatively walked forward towards the outstretched arms holding the guild seal. After a long pause, she picked up, and held it for a sudden. An aura began to grow around her and it grew stronger and stronger, until it seemed to consume her. A large, cacophonous roar filled the room, making me squeal slightly, before recoiling in embarrassment. The aura around Annabel slowly began to die down, and I began to walk towards her. Once I stood next to her, I realised that she must have grown. Before, we were the roughly the same size, now she was about a head taller. She seemed stronger, more powerful and more incredible.

"Walter…" Annabel began slowly, "What does this mean?"

"It means… You are a hero, like your Father."


	2. Maid it Cleaner

"This. Is disgusting," Annabel said to Walter, concerning the awful stench and strange squelch coming from the ground of the sewers, "Where are we even going?"

We had been walking for a while now, through the catacombs to find a way out of the blood-stained castle, and we had ended up going through the Bowerstone sewers. There had been several bats, which the princess had very simply destroyed with her new found 'gauntlet' which seemed to appear out of thin air, much to the happiness of Jasper- who hated bats- and Walter- who loved battle. It was shocking at first, to see fire come out of the princess' hand, but as Annabel slowly managed to work out how to use her new-found power, I felt more secure.

We had been walking for a while now, and I was beginning to get rather tired, until we could see something in the distance. There was something circular on the ground, though I couldn't quite make out what it was; I had never seen it before.

"It's a _Cullis gate_," Walter said before anybody could ask, "I thought they were all gone, but this must be one of the only ones left."

Annabel was the first to speak up. "It's also a dead end, where do we go now?"

"Well, _gate _is the important word here. This will take us somewhere, hopefully out of the castle if we are lucky, though you will need to use your will power princess."

So Annabel stepped on top of the Cullis gate, and used her surround magic to power up the gate. I saw the circle of fire, then everything went into a blur as I felt like I was being pulled in half, it was an abnormal, nauseating feeling. We were thrown onto the floor of an unusual looking room, caked in dust, with a map table in the middle and four doors leading off into other rooms. I sat on the floor rubbing my back where I had fallen on top of something sharp and waited for my vision to focus fully. It was a beautiful room. I could hear in the Clover, the princess's most trusted friend and dog sneeze and whine at Annabel to get off the ground. We all slowly shook our clothes and stood up, groaning and moaning as our joints clicked into place.

"Let's not do that EVER again," I said to everyone, still trying to stretch my arms and legs out fully.

"I second that, Miss Emily," replied Jasper, as we dumped the bags onto the floor to look around the room. "Hmm, this place… Walter is this-"

Walter interrupted. "It is. It's the old Kings sanctuary. Fascinating… He talked of it often, but I never thought it existed…"

I seemed to recall something of a sanctuary long ago, from a story the old King Sparrow used to tell many times to Annabel, Elliot, Logan and I. It was about the first time he had brought the Queen - Annabel's and Logan's mother – to the sanctuary, and how she would try on all his clothes and jump through his gold, play with his weapons like a young child again. I was too young to remember the Queen, but many talked of her being a fair and just woman, who loved all as her equal. But she was unwell for a long time, and the sickness grew inside her, and Avo took her away.

Jasper was flicking through the guide to the sanctuary, trying to find out how to use the map table, whilst I set about to cleaning the sanctuary and unpacking. Clover was nudging her nose on Annabel's hand, but she wouldn't respond to her, she sat there with a vacant expression on her face, staring into the distance.

_Broken little toy..._

"Did you hear that?" I inquired about the odd voice I had heard.

"Hear what?" Walter asked, but the voice seemed to have stopped, so I shrugged it off.

"Aha!" exclaimed Jasper, pointing to a rather lengthy paragraph in the book, "Well, it says here, '_to use the map table, you must select where you wish to go, and find that specific area on the map, point, and then suffer some slight or extreme nausea until you get to your destination.' _Needless to say then I will not be joining you on these journeys; I prefer to keep my feet placed firmly on the ground."

I laughed, agreeing with Jasper on this. "I'll stay as well, tidy things up a bit."

Walter walked along to the map table. "Then it shall be just Clover, Annabel and I." Clover barked at the sound of adventure, but Annabel remained silent. "Annabel?"

She snapped out of her trance in that second to reply, "Yes Walter?"

"Er, we… we should get going to the dweller camp."

"Oh. Right." She got up to stand next to Walter, but her feet dragged on the floor.

And then they disappeared, leaving Jasper and I went to sort the sanctuary back into its former glory.

Time past and things were becoming cleaner by the minute. I had discovered many beautiful items whilst doing this, such as the old Hero's weapons and fascinating books on so many subjects. Jasper was still flicking through the pages of the sanctuary book, occasionally making small grunts and acknowledgements.

"How's the reading going?" I asked, curious about how such a large book could be for a small few rooms.

He had not seemed to have heard me, so I pretended I hadn't said anything and continued to unpack all the items in the bags we had brought.

"We're back!" I could hear Walter in the main room, so I walked from the weapons room into where the newly-dusted map table stood.

"How did it go?"

This time, Annabel spoke up, grinning for the first time since Elliot's death. "We almost have complete support of the Dwellers; it was incredible to see the outside world and places I had never been. Now all we have to is take out Saker."

"Saker? Are you crazy!? He has an entire army of Mercenaries at his beck and call and you want to take him on?" I exclaimed.

"Yes," Walter replied grimly, "But we will need some more hands if we are to stop them all."

I jumped to attention at this point. Because to be honest? I loved fighting. The heat of the moment when you bring your opponent to his knees was such a thrilling thing, even though I hadn't really done any fighting since being taken into the castle when I was eleven. But fighting reminded me of my Father, who I had loved dearly. My mother has died just a few weeks after I was born, so it was just him and I, but we got on well and never had any troubles. He taught me all of my fighting, and I realised that I was a pretty good shot, so fighting always made me think of when things were fine with him and I. But he's gone, and I left my family home to find work in the castle. I smiled back at Walter, "I'll get my gun."

I walked into the weapons room to find my gun where I had left it on one of the manikins I had cleaned up. It was the Holy Vengeance pistol, passed down from my Great-Great-Grandfather to me, after he shot himself because he had impure thoughts one morning. Slightly odd, but I like the way it feels in my hands, my own slice of history. I walked back to the main room where everyone was, gun in hand.

"You ready?" Walter asked.

I nodded in reply.

"Good, I'll quickly sort out supplies and come back when we are ready to head to the mercenary camp, where Saker is."

Walter walked out with Jasper following at his heels like a lost puppy. The real dog however, was fast asleep in the old Hero's dogs basket I has discovered, leaving Annabel and I time to talk, just to each other. She was leaning over the map table, looking at the Mercenary camp. I walked over to her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

We stood like that for a while, until she broke the silence. "I miss him."

I sighed. She really was hurting. "We all do princess, we all do."

"I hate Logan. To think he would do something like this to me: it's sick," she took a long, deep breath before continuing, "How can I go on without him? I- I don't want to do this-"

She was about to run out of the room at this point, but I grabbed her arm to stop her doing so and made her turn to face me. She had to hear the truth, even if it hurt her. "Annabel." She stopped trying to struggle when she saw the serious expression I had on my face. "Elliot is gone, and there is no magic in the world that can bring him back. And I will be here every step of the way, helping you fix yourself back up again."

"I can't," She whispered, "I just can't."

"You can and you must! This… crying and saying you can't… It's not what Elliot would want you to do for the rest of your life. He'd want you to continue what he died for. He died to save those people, now it's your turn."

She stood for a while, processing everything I had said before turning back to me and saying, "How do you give such good advice? How do you know exactly what to say?"

I shrugged it off, even though inside I felt like I was going to explode with glee, "I like to prepare myself for these kinds of moments."

She laughed half-heartedly, before walking over to where Clover napped, fidgeting every couple of minutes, no doubt trying to catch an imaginary hare.

"I'll kill him. Even if he is my brother, he will pay for these hideous crimes." The dark words came out of the princess's lips.

At this, I was taken aback. At that moment, I too couldn't understand why Logan would do such things, but I still remembered him before he became King. He was a kind, if not slightly rebellious teenager who loved nothing more than to tease his sister and climb trees. Deep down, I knew that he was still there, that child forced too quickly into a man. But the death of Elliot had blinded her, and I understood. But her words… they seemed so cold, so empty.

_The light inside you will die._

That voice again. Annabel hadn't reacted, so I guess she hadn't heard it, but such a cruel voice, like the princess had just moments ago. Where was it coming from? Who had said it? What was happening?

"Emily? Emily!" Annabel had been calling out to me. "We should get going, go kill off some mercenaries while I still have the energy to stand."

"I may be a bit rusty; I haven't fired this gun for months."

Annabel threw her arm over me and laughed, "It's okay, I'll save you with my magic."

"I won't need saving!"

"Hmm? Is that a hint of jealousy I detect?"

We laughed all the way into the room we had seen Walter and Jasper walk into earlier, ready for a fight.


	3. Maid an Ally

I swore under my breath as I shot down another bloody mercenary, but when one went down, another seemed to pop up in its place like the hollow men myths I heard about from the Sparrow King, however I rarely believed him. From far away, I could see Walter and Annabel as small dots slashing their way through hordes of enemies, whilst I was on higher ground shooting from afar. It was thrilling; I hadn't ever fought like this before and I was relishing every second of it! Blood pumped fiercely through my body with adrenaline as I pushed through the countless amounts of mercenaries, swapping my gun for a cheap but tough sword I had found in Brightwall a while ago and ran to catch up with Walter, who was slowly getting surrounded. A bullet whizzed past my face, grazing my cheek as it went along making me curse. I saw a man grinning maliciously at me.

He mocked, "Did you hurt yourself little girl? Maybe you should go run to your precious mummy and daddy!"

Before he even got to laugh at his own joke I put my own bullet into his skull and he dropped to the floor dead. No sooner had I killed him though did I have to keep fighting. After a few minutes though, the mercenaries' numbers were dwindling. After Annabel beat the living daylights out of the last man there was silence, which was worrying. Walter, Annabel and I stood panting for a little while, trying to figure out why it was so eerily quiet.

"Where's Saker? I haven't killed all these mercenaries to end up short you know," Said Annabel, still a little breathless.

At the very moment the Princess uttered those words, the giant gate to the left of us opened up, to reveal a sort of arena with many mercenaries and one enormous man standing above them all- he was obviously Saker.

"Who dared to enter my camp and kill my men?" A voice thundered. "Come closer."

We had no choice in the matter but to step forward, for if we turned to run we would have surely been shot in the back, a coward's death. Besides, we promised we would make sure Saker paid for his heinous crimes. As soon as we entered the arena, the gate quickly fell down and we were trapped. Two men grabbed my arms and I tried to shake them off, but it was impossible. To the right of Annabel, I could see Walter being dragged off too, but nobody took Annabel.

"So," began Saker, as he rubbed his hands together and jumped down from his raised platform to walk closer to Annabel, "You've left quite a trail of bodies. You're not one of Sabine's dwellers, that's for damn sure, but you'll die like one."

Annabel dodged a firearm that Saker had grabbed from his pocket and thrown and grabbed her sword to protect herself. I tried to pull away to help her, but it was no use; the men holding me back were too strong.

She was now striking blows at Saker, but it was like they didn't touch him. Every now and then, he would push her away, punch her, throw fire at her; he seemed invincible. Fire was struck into his face by Annabel and he pulled away in pain, buying time for Annabel to run out, give her some time to catch her breath and prepare for her next attack. Watching Annabel was incredible, she moved swiftly and carefully around Saker and never gave up. Every time she fell down she got back up again, angrier and more determined. It reminded me of when she was learning the piano, she would always get angry when she hit a bum note but would always try again. The fight went on for a long time, neither person giving up. They dodged each other's attacks and shot, hit, fired at each other before Annabel stopped for a second- these bright florescent blue lines appeared all over her body and with a yell, she struck her sword down on Saker and he fell to the ground. She had won! Annabel looked like she couldn't quite believe what had happened, but I certainly could. Saker slowly pulled himself off the ground onto his knees before talking.

"Stop! You've won. The battle is yours. Kill me or let me live, it's your choice and my men will honour it."

Silence spread across the arena as the princess made her decision. The mercenaries stood worried and so did Walter and I. I could only imagine what was running through Annabel's mind but whatever it was I hoped it was something good. Out of nowhere, she slapped him and cries of protest could be heard from the men, but she pulled out her hand as a support to pull Saker up. Smiling, he took it and the protests turned to cheers and sighs of relief.

"Thank you. I won't forget this, and the dwellers will be left alone. Let the strangers go!"

Immediately, Walter and I were released from our firm hold and allowed to run over to Annabel.

"That was amazing!" I gushed.

She giggled like a little girl before replying thank you. We agreed that then was a good time to head back to the sanctuary, before meeting Sabine. We materialised in front of Jasper.

"Oh, Back from your, err… muddy trip eh?"

We laughed at inspecting ourselves- we were a mess. There was not one article of clothing not caked in blood and mud, with rips everywhere.

Annabel walked over to the map room and studied it for a moment. "I'm going to head to my home in Brightwall, get washed up. Do you want to wash too after me, Emily?"

"Sure, I'll meet you there later."

She nodded her acknowledgement, before closing her eyes and disappearing. She'd left her weapons on the floor, so I grabbed them and headed over to the weapons room holding mine in my arms as well. It was nice; to sit in a room all by myself and clean weapons like my dad told me to. Before I'd cleaned them though, I changed into some old clothes to sit in, so I smelt less like death itself. After forty-five minutes or so, I thought it best to head down to Annabel's home for a wash.

* * *

She had bought with little money she had from pie-making, an old and quaint cottage that belonged to an old artist and had easels and paintings scattered around. It was a beautiful home, and I wandered around the little home, admiring the brush-strokes until the princess came in, wringing out her hair.

"Hey," she said, "you can wash upstairs if you want, there's a water pump outside and hot water is on the stove." She looked better after washing, but there was a large gash on her left side that needed attending to.

"Ouch! You should let Jasper check out that wound, it could get infected," I told her.

She looked down at her arm and her eyes widened as she suddenly noticed the injury she had sustained from fighting. "I-I didn't even notice it," she mumbled, more to herself than to me. "Well, I'll go talk to Jasper now, and then come back later. In the meantime, feel free to stay here." Once again she closed her eyes and left, leaving me to myself. I took a long soak before getting out and into my favourite outfit; a long flowing skirt made from a soft material and a loose fitting corset match with a white, short-sleeved blouse. On my feet I wore my comfiest boots made from leather, my dad's. They were a little big for me, but they made me feel safe. By the time I was finished, it was evening and there was a beautiful sunset, with shades of orange, purple and pink. I thought it best to talk to Walter and Jasper to see what would be happening tomorrow, so I went back to the sanctuary to find Jasper dusting and Walter polishing his sword and taking off the blood specks with a sparkling clean gun to his right. Jasper stopped what he was doing when he saw me.

"Ah, Emily! I trust you are feeling better?

"Yes, thank you Jasper. Did Annabel see you about her arm?" I asked.

"She did, yes, I bandaged her arm and she left very soon after, saying she was going to very quickly head to the market stalls before they closed and grab a potion to help the healing before going back to sleep."

"We will be meeting back up here tomorrow and then travel to the dweller camp to talk to Sabine. I'm sure he will be most pleased when we tell him the good news," said Walter, his eyes still fixed on his sword.

I smiled, and with the knowledge that I came looking for, I left to head to the Quill and Quandry tavern for a room to sleep in for the night. I only had a small amount of money, mostly from my savings I got whilst working in the castle, but it was enough for the equivalent of three weeks stay in a tavern, without any food or luxuries. I, however, only needed one night, so I headed over to the Quill and paid. The temptation of a drink though was a little too much, so I bought a small one and sat in a quiet corner upstairs, thinking to myself. As I was day dreaming, I noticed an odd piece of paper sat on the table, so I gently picked it up and began reading.

"The life and adventures of Ben Finn…" I said to myself, "…Page one…"

* * *

I was awoken by screeching birds outside my window and a slight headache from staying up too late reading this 'Ben Finn' autobiography several times, it was fascinating. As far as I could tell, he was a solider and a popular one too. Gunk… I had heard of Brightwood, but not Gunk, not even that as a nickname for an area. I guessed it was around ten, so I got up and quickly washed and dressed before heading to the sanctuary to meet everyone. By the time I had arrived, they were all there, feasting on some breakfast before leaving.

Walter swallowed before talking. "Are we all ready to meet the dweller?"

We all nodded except Jasper, who said, "I should stay here and look after everything, until you get back."

"Okay, then we should go now."

It was freezing in the dweller camp and I really wished I'd brought a coat, but at least I had long sleeves. It was a magical looking place, with snow dusted on the ground and old caravans were dotted around. People were cheering, and throwing confetti at us as we walked over to Sabine.

"Our hero returns, bringing good tidings!" Called out Sabine, a small jolly man with a welsh accent. "Saker has been defeated, and we are safe to roam Mistpeak. We will fight with you, to overthrow King Logan, but we require one more thing." He leaned in close to Annabel and said quietly, "Promise to restore these mountains to their full glory, and to protect our right to dwell in them, and promise you will bring nothing but the fiercest justice upon Logan's head!"

"I promise!" replied the princess, pumped on adrenaline.

Cheers were heard over where the rest of the dwellers stood and watched, joyful that they could finally get the revenge they had been so desperately waiting for on Logan. We shook hands before parting, having to pretty much drag Clover away from a giant of a dweller named Boulder, who had taken to the dog quite quickly.

The amount of people watching us had died down, so I quietly asked Walter, "So, where are we going next Walter, we still need more people don't we?"

"Yes, we do Emily," He replied, before saying to both Annabel and I, "Be ready to lose your sense of smell, we're going to Mourningwood."

* * *

~Author's Note~

Hello! Thank you for reading my little fanfic, finally getting round to Ben Finn! I was thinking that I might do a little bit of third person for Ben in the fort.

I'm gonna be reaaally busy in July so I'm sorry if it takes me ages to post a new chapter, but once its summer I plan to write a ton, unless I'm forced into the outside world…

I have a story on Fictionpress too, so please take a look: s/3123978/1/Love-War-and-Death

Okay, enough blabbing, bye!


	4. Maid it to the Fort

~Third Person~

Ben Finn had finally finished chapter 3 of his autobiography, even though he had misplaced one of his chapters somewhere. Pleased with his work, he threw it at the unsuspecting Tick, who was struck in the face before turning to glare at Ben, who now sat with an amused expression.

"New Chapter?"

"…Yup."

Tick picked up the pages and read the first few lines as he walked towards Grove and Gould, who were lying down beside a fire after a pretty rough night of hollow men. Ben smiled at the sleepy men, before his mind wandered to other… colourful things, like the latest broken-hearted barmaid he'd left in Brightwall. But at least this one didn't have an angry husband.

_'When the birds and the bees are whispering in the trees_

_And our soldiers have gone to fight our war…'_

Ben picked up his head. Was he imagining things, or was there a female singing? He stood up to see other men swiveling their heads round to the song. It was definitely a female's voice, and a beautiful one at that.

_'Well they left their miss at home_

_Sitting cold sad and alone_

_And we really wish that they could come home_

_Come hoome, come hooome, come hoooome…'_

Men started to walk towards the voice, which was coming from the gate, until Major Swift appeared from his tent and told them to go out on patrol on the other side of the fort. Feeling slightly disheartened, Captain Finn went back to where he'd sat for the past hour and thought about chapter four until very shortly the gates were opened up and three new people entered.

* * *

~Normal~

Never before had I been so pleased to see sunlight! The Hobbes in the monorail cave were sickeningly squishy to kill and there were so many. By the time we had exited the cave, I was covered in blood- luckily not my own. But where we arrived wasn't anywhere better than the cave. We were in Mourningwood and Walter was right; the stench was disgusting and my nose was burning from the fumes I had inhaled. In the distance we could see the fort Walter told Annabel and I about.

"There it is- Mourningwood fort. There are plenty of soldiers there, but they'll be on our side," said Walter whilst trying to pull himself out of a deep part of the marsh.

Annabel looked at me and we both instantly knew the same thing. There was an old soldier song that my Dad taught me before I left, one that my Mother used to sing a lot and I shared with Elliot and Annabel, so I began to sing. This made Annabel laugh and clap along, while Walter looked on amused.

Soon Mourningwood fort loomed over us, and we let Walter talk to the soldier on guard before he called out, "Open the gate! Tell Major Swift Walter's here!"

With a loud groan, the gates opened up and we slowly walked in, scanning our new environment. Inside, soldiers were lounging next to fires looking truly exhausted from a battle of sorts. On the right, three graves were being filled in by soil with a couple of men stood by them looking sombre. The princess and Sir Walter walked towards a man I supposed was in charge, but I hung back a little, and examined where we were a little more. It seemed like a nice placed, but I felt slightly conscious of all the men staring at Annabel and I like they hadn't eaten for two weeks.

"Walter! It has been far too long old friend," a man with a rather magnificent moustache called out to Walter. They laughed before shaking their hands in a tight grip before moustache –man noticed two young females that had walked in with Walter.

"Well, Walter, we have been busy…"

Walter gave a long, deep laugh before replying. "Major Swift, I would like you to meet Princess Annabel- a hero like her father," he added before beckoning me over, so I slowly walked over to them, "and this is Emily, our best maid, and a good shoot as well. Just treat them as any pair of hands."

Major Swift nodded and shook both our hands before calling over a man named 'Captain Ben Finn'. I gasped. It was him, the autobiography one! I felt the pages heavy in my pocket and smiled, before realising that Annabel was looking at me funny. I shook my head at her, thinking that I'll just tell her later. Ben Finn walked over to us, though he was nothing I had imagined. I mean, sure, he was handsome, but I'd always imagined him a brunette, but he had messy blonde hair with bright blue eyes. I felt odd, knowing what I did about him with him not having a clue about who I was.

"Captain Finn, this is Annabel-"Annabel smiled, "-And this is Emily." I curtseyed, feeling a little embarrassed. "Could you grab Gould and let him escort Annabel to the mortar and teach her how to use it, and then take Emily to the shooting range," Moustache-man A.K.A Major Swift ordered.

Before Annabel walked off though, I quickly pulled her back and asked, "Will you be okay?"

She smiled at me before nodding and saying, "I'll be fine, you just worry too much," she teased.

"Okay Major, let's see how great a shot the maid is," Captain Finn winked at me, and in my head I instantly thought 'DON'T BLUSH DON'T BLUSH DON'T BLUSH' so I settled for looking down and examining something completely uninteresting on the ground. He walked away to find Gould, then once he had he showed me to the shooting range, a small space hidden from the rest of the fort with a table and some bottles to shoot. I pulled out my gun and got ready to shoot before he pulled out his arm to tell me to stop.

"Hang on love," He started, leaning in close to whisper in my ear, "Why don't we make things interesting? Every time you miss, you take off an article of clothing-"

Realising what he was saying, I aimed my gun and shot all three targets down before looking at him, "How about no?"

He put his arms up in surrender. "Hey, can't help a guy for trying, it's been a while."

We shot a few more rounds, neither of us missing until captain Finn spoke up again. "So, uh, what's it like being a maid to the princess?"

"She's a very good friend, so I enjoy it," I replied, "We've have a lot of fun over the years."

"Oh yeah? Cleaning and sorts?"

"Yeah, but a lot of the time it was just looking after Annabel and making sure she was okay."

"I could give her a good looking after..." He mumbled to himself, sounding really dirty as he said it.

* * *

Well, it was official- Ben Finn was a weird man who was obsessed with females, but a fun guy to be around, so long as he wasn't trying to get in your pants. We tried doing some bets on the shooting, but we kept tying, so we laughed and gave up.

We heard some shouts and guns shot. "Shit!" Ben yelled before reloading his rifle and pulling me out of our sheltered shooting range. "Come on, we've got some hollow men to kill."

"Hollow men?" I thought they weren't real, but Captain Finn certainly seemed convinced enough, so I went with it. When I saw what the soldiers were shooting at, I almost screamed- corpses were standing, moving and shooting. I didn't think twice before finding a spot to stand next to Ben and shooting as many of the bastards that I could possibly shoot. Slowly though, Hollow men began to surround Ben and I, so back to back we grabbed our swords and began slashing through the hordes of undead. We span around and dodged swords and bullets. I was so busy with one zombie that wouldn't die I didn't recognise another hollow man swinging at me until ben pulled me out of the way. I grunted a quick thank you before killing the accused hollow man and continued.

The numbers began to slow, and it looked like we were winning, until we heard a loud cry. To my right, I could see Gould on the ground, clutching his shoulder which was now covered in blood. He was very much exposed to the hollow men still shooting, so Ben ran over to him to drag him over to the wall where he'd be safer. But then of course that was when a large number of hollow men decided to surround me once again, and without Ben on my back, I was completely out numbered. I was so terrified, I felt numb as I shakily tried to kill them off until Ben came back like a knight in shining armour and finished them off for me.

I stood panting for a moment before saying, "Thanks- for – that- is that all of them?"

He grinned at me. "Yeah, that's all of them."

That sounded like Christmas to me and I stretched out my arms, mumbling about how great a hot bath would be. But when I looked back at Ben, he was looking funnily at my waist. "Err… E-Emily?"

"What?" I looked down as it said it, but then when I did look, I understood what he was talking about. Through my shirt, I could see blood seeping and spreading, and then sharp pain hit me. MY head began to cloud and my vision blurred, and before I knew it I was on the ground, with somebody calling out my named until I completely blacked out from pain.

* * *

~Authors note~

Yay! Another chapter done and dusted :) I would love it if you reviewed; it always gives me warm fuzzies inside!

Aaah, it's that time of year, where it's almost the summer holidays and you JUST. WANT. TO. LEAVE. SCHOOL. Anybody who's also in school, hang in there!

Thank you for reading!

Disclaimer: As much as I really want Lionhead to just come to my door and give me fable along with Ben Finn and Elliot (Simon Pegg and Nicholas Hoult yumyumyum!) I do not own Fable or anyone in it. BOO.


	5. Maid it out Alive

"Hello? Emily, you in there…"

"Um, Ben? I don't think you're meant to tap people on the head when they're unconscious."

"I think you do princess."

"Grove, back me up on this one?"

"I'm with the princess, sorry Finn."

"I'm heartbroken, Grove."

"What?" I mumbled, trying to open my eyelids to examine the nonsense I was hearing around my head. When I did finally get my eyelids to open, I saw three relieved faces above me: Annabel, Captain Finn and Grove, who then moved down to my wound to redo my well wrapped bandages, which were now caked in blood. I was in a small tent that smelt of bog, with a couple of empty beds and a table with potions and bandages on it. I was laying on what was possibly the most uncomfortable bed I'd ever slept on; it was pretty much a block of wood with a cloth over it. I tried lifting my head, but felt a stabbing pain in and threw my head back again with a groan. I felt so ill, like someone had thrown several bricks at me after I had run several miles.

"Annabel... Are you alright?" I asked.

"Am I okay?! You're the one on the floor with a hole in your stomach!" Annabel replied obviously trying not to laugh. Although she was doing a good job not to giggle, I did- big mistake. I groaned even more as the pain in my stomach increased rather drastically.

"Easy now miss, you've got quite a nasty gash there," said Grove, who was now engrossed in sorting out my crimson bandages, "Do you remember getting this wound?"

I scrunched my eyes trying to remember. "There… were several of them things surrounding me, I was on my own and… I recall one of the skeletons getting pretty close. That could be it."

After I'd finished talking, Ben swore loudly, and I turned to look to him. "What's wrong?" I asked, a little concerned about how pissed off he looked.

"That was when I left."

"I'm sorry, I still don't understand-"

"When Gould got hurt, I left you on your own, I'm so sorry Emily."

I put my hand on his arm as reassurance. "Ben, it's alright, you had to save Gould I could see he was in direct line of fire."

"It didn't make a difference though," Ben turned to look to the door that was open and in my eyesight. In the distance, you could just about make out by the moon, somebody digging a grave. The three people above my bed looked very grim, "He died of his wounds a little while before you woke up."

He looked calm, but sad too. He seemed so much different as I would be if I lost a friend like he just did. Mine would have involved a lot more water and snot, but he remained composed. "Ben, you shouldn't be sorry. I'm sorry for your loss however."

His mood changed at that point, and he smiled and held his head higher. "No worries, at least one of you is alive."

"Only just though," Grove interjected, "A couple of centimetres to the right and you'd be a goner."

Just then, Walter walked in. "Hey, thank goodness you're awake, I don't know what we would have done if we'd lost you."

"Aw, thank you Sir Walter. But I'm not going to be able to walk like this, and I knew you only wanted to stay here for two nights or so, what do we do?"

"Well, it is a slight problem. Whilst you were asleep, Major Swift agreed to join our revolution, and I was sent a message from our next possible ally saying she urgently needed to see us."

"I want to stay with Emily," Said Annabel to Walter, "Can't we tell this 'possible ally' that we'll be running late?"

Walter shifted uncomfortably on one spot, looking quite nervous, surprising for a man like him. "The letter made it sound very important that we see her as soon as possible, something to do with Reaver."

Reaver often came to Bowerstone Castle for meetings with Logan and he disgusted me. Too often had I seen him fooling around with the servants behind the curtains, and although he'd taken a small fondness to me once, I very carefully declined, stepping around him like I was walking on eggshells. There'd been incidents at the castle of Reaver shooting people that got in his way, and I didn't want to bleed onto the newly cleaned carpet.

"If I may say," Said Ben, "Why doesn't Emily stay here whilst you go on, and she meets you wherever you're going?"

"Well Ben that would depend on your intentions wouldn't it?" joked Grove as he left with my old bandages to dispose. Ben laughed it off, but didn't say anything.

Walter and Annabel stood and sat for a while deliberating and deciding.

"Okay."

* * *

~Third Person~

It was around three in the morning when Ben went to check on Emily, who was resting again now knowing that she was staying for a few days. He was stopped by Walter though.

"Ben, it was good to see you again," said Walter, shaking Ben's hand in a firm grip. He then pulled Ben in a whispered in his ear. "Try anything on Emily and you are a dead man." He walked away laughing wholeheartedly to find Major Swift to talk more about the revolution. The revolution… Ben was disappointed that Annabel was going to be the next Queen, not because he didn't want her on the throne, but that meant absolutely no fooling around with her. He still allowed his mind to wander into how something like that would be. He sighed, wondering why a princess couldn't be with a devilishly handsome Captain like himself. He exhaled again, and then went over to the tent, but all he came to find in the medical tent was an empty bed.

"Where the bloody hell did she go?" Ben asked himself.

After searching around for a little while, he found her in one of the tents, comforting a slumbering Annabel. The princess was mumbling and moaning, tossing and turning, while her dog sat whimpering at her, looking as concerned as a dog could. Emily was sitting by the bed, trying to hush and comfort the girl.

She must have noticed Ben coming through the doors, as she said without turning, "Nightmares, she's had a lot of them a lot recently." She pulled a blanket up from the bottom of the bed and very carefully placed it across Annabel, who was now crying softly, but no longer yelling.

"Why does she get them?"

She sighed. "I don't know if I can or should tell you…"

"You can trust me; we're on the same team now." He put a hand on hers and smiled.

"Well… A little a while ago, we were still at the castle. She had a fiancé you see, and they wanted to prepare for a wedding." She paused for a moment, deciding what to say next. "But, uh, Logan didn't exactly approve when they talked to him about it. He wanted Annabel to marry Reaver. So he had Elliot -her fiancé- killed. She's blamed herself for his death every day of her life." Her voice was soft and sad.

There was a long silence, before Ben replied, "You're bleeding."

She looked down at her stomach and saw the blood seeping through her bandages again. In a swift action, he picked her up into his arms and took her back to the medical tent. "Grove, get over here!" He yelled, laying her gently back onto the bed she was laying on earlier. Grove came rushing in a quickly ripping off the bandages and stemming the bleeding.

"I'm sorry about the bandages," said Emily timidly.

Ben put his hand to stroke her head, before she fell back to sleep, "Don't you worry sweetheart, you just rest now."

* * *

~Normal~

"We'll see you at Bowerstone soon, Emily, and be very careful with your wounds," said Walter as he got ready to leave Mourningwood fort, "You'll find us in the sewers in Industrial most likely, that's where Page's headquarters are."

"Thank you Walter, I'll see you soon," I replied.

Annabel pulled me into a hug, trying to be careful about my waist, which now had several stiches in it to keep me from falling apart. "I don't know how I can do this without you," She whispered in my ear, "But I'll try, and we'll see you soon, okay?"

I smiled. "Soon, I promise. Once I'm able to stand on two feet for a longer period than five minutes, I'll run into Bowerstone Industrial and search for you!"

She and Walter walked through the back gate of the fort, before Annabel turned around and waved goodbye. I waved back, and then headed back to the fire, where food was being served. It wasn't great; just soup with whatever vegetable were left from the last time they got supplies, but I was starving and didn't care. As I was politely sipping the warm soup (There was no cutlery- NONE. Not even a spoon), I didn't notice a certain captain plop himself down next to me until I heard laughter to my left. "What?" I asked Ben, who was trying to hide his bubbles and snorts of laughter.

"Why you eat like that?" he said, pointing at my technique of eating.

I shifted uncomfortably, trying somehow to explain it. In the end, I couldn't, so I settled with a "I just do."

"I thought you were just a maid though, they don't need to eat politely, right?"

I didn't really want to tell the reason I was like that, I hadn't even told Annabel. The only person who ever knew at the castle was King Sparrow, and he took his oath to keep it a secret to his grave. I wasn't going to admit it to a complete stranger. So instead, I put my bowl down and indicated at his. "Fine, you show me the 'proper' way to eat it."

"Alright." He ripped a piece of bread into smaller bits and dunked it into the soup, swirling the bit around before shoving the whole thing into his mouth and barely swallowing without chewing it. I screwed my nose up in disgust, but when he gave me a little bit of bread, I took it and mimicked his actions with a little more delicacy. "Easier, isn't it?"

I nodded whilst dipping another piece of bread in, less delicately this time. Regrettably, he was right about it being easier, and it was faster too. My hunger satisfied, I tried moving closer to the fire for warmth, feeling comfortable and in considerably less pain than earlier. All the soldiers were now gathered around the same fire, telling of their latest conquests and one man began to play the lute. I wasn't paying attention to what any of the soldiers were saying, but when I heard the lute, I instantly recognised the song and smiled. It was one that Elliot had taught Annabel to play, whilst Logan and I were watching on, laughing at how cute the two of them were together. I must have learnt the words unknowingly, as they instantly came flooding my mind, and before I realised it I started to quietly sing it.

_'Oh dear, what can the matter be?_

_Johnny's so long at the fair_

_He promised to buy me a kerchief to please me_

_And then for a kiss oh he vowed he would tease me_

_He promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons_

_To tie up my bonny brown hair.'_

I hadn't realised until I stopped singing that people had stopped what they were doing to listen to what I was saying. When I finished, they all began applauding, and I turned beetroot with embarrassment. I didn't even realise I had been singing that loudly, but I guess I must have. I got slapped on the back by Ben, something I think is a guy's thing or something.

"So you were the one singing outside the fort!" he exclaimed with a large grin.

"Um… yeah, that was me…"

"You've got a great voice!" Said Grove from across the fire.

"Er… thanks," I felt really uncomfortable, so I asked Ben to help take me back to the medical tent, which was where I was told I would be staying for the whole I time I was in the fort. He helped me onto the bed, before standing awkwardly and saying, "You know… You should be a singer, tour all of Albion and make all the people swoon!" He smiled like a four year-old had just been told he could have another sweet.

"And you should be a writer, tour the world with your interesting autobiography. I am correct in thinking that you wrote this?" I pulled out the papers I had brought from Brightwall's Quill and Quandry. They were a little crumpled and torn from all the fighting, but still readable. Just. When Ben recognised the paper I held in my hand, he lunged for it.

"You found my missing chapter!" he said, taking the paper off of me. "Let me read it to you…"

"But I've already read it," I protested.

"Yeah, but not properly like I would."

I laughed, knowing that he was not going to budge before telling me his way of reading the story. So I let him read on, acting out the story as he went along. After he had completed his epic tale, he bowed to his audience of one, so I applauded enthusiastically. He promised to return with chapters two and three, so he ran out, but my eyelids were so heavy, I couldn't keep them open. I ended up falling asleep to the sounds of heavy gunfire and shouts.

* * *

~Author's Note~

Woo! Another chapter done. I'd like to thank Robyn for helping read through my chapter, and i'd like to thank all the people that sent lovely reviews!

Please review and follow, it would mean a lot :)

The song Emily sings is 'Oh dear! What can the matter be?' it's a nursery rhyme, but i really liked the words, so i thought i'd put it in.

Anyhow, thanks for reading! And stay awesome ;)


	6. Maid in Hiding

"No." Major Swift scribbled his signature onto some papers, not even looking at me.

I breathed deeply, trying to contain my anger. "Major, please I am fine. I need to get back to Princess Annabel-"

"Try walking over to the end of this tent without bleeding or falling over," Interrupted Swift, who was still concentrating hard on a long and detailed letter.

I turned around, and then placed one foot in front of the other, being as careful as possible. But before I made it to the end, my side began to feel piercing pain and I fell to the ground with a loud groan of pain.

Major Swift sighed and scratched his moustache. He came over and helped me back up. "You need to be careful, Miss Emily. There are people who care about you, and want to see you get better, and you can only do that by taking things slow." Swift was a kind, gentle person underneath all that facial hair, who genuinely cared. "I can see that the men have taken a fondness to you, especially after the music last night."

I blushed for probably the millionth time. "Thanks," I replied, "But I think they only like me seeming as I am the _only_ female here now."

"Nonsense!"

I laughed, and then grimaced at the pain. Swift called Captain Finn into the room. He saluted before saying, "Yes Major?"

"Could you take Miss Emily here back to the medical tent for me please?"

Ben smiled his devilish grin. "It would be my honest pleasure." He very carefully put his arm around me for support, and we hobbled back to the tent, which now had a brand new injured person in it. It was last night's attack, and a hollow man- although their numbers were lowering- got a lucky shot at Grove's leg. I placed myself onto the bed, being sure not to pull anything and got myself comfortable.

"So he said no?" asked Ben.

"…Yeah."

"Well this is good news!"

"Why?"

He smiled his devilishly handsome grin. "Because you, my friend, get to spend more time with the incredible me and my many wonderful tales."

I groaned. I was going to be there for hours.

"Well, since you can't go anywhere now, I can act out more of my autobiography, and you can do nothing to stop me," he winked. Out of his pocket, he pulled out more papers like the ones I had picked up at the Brightwall tavern. He tossed them at me to read.

I made a mock sigh, and let him go on with his story, whilst I read the paper copy. There were a lot of mistakes in the spelling and grammar, so using the ink and quill on my bedside table, I went through it and corrected all the errors, all the while Ben continuing to tell his tale he had perfectly memorised.

I had just finished correcting the mistakes when he had finished, so I threw the pages back at him. "It's good," I said, "Lots of mistakes though."

"Hey, you can't expect a guy to be perfect."

I had to laugh at that one, and so did Grove. "Well you'll have to be perfect for the princess!"

"Ah, the princess, how much I would love to have a piece of that."

"Hey!" I said sternly. I may not be her mother or sister, but I was still close to her. "Don't talk about her like that, you should understand why."

Ben cleared his throat, and quickly went out of the room, trying to avoid my gaze. Men. I rolled my eyes at him. Even as a creepy pervert, he was still kind of cute- wait no. I didn't think that. I DID NOT think that. But now it's all I'm thinking of. Uh, crap.

"So, Emily, where did you learn to sing like that?" Grove asked, pushing himself up into a sitting position.

I shook my head. "It was never something I learnt; I guess I just had it. People use to say my Mother had a nice voice, so… I don't know."

He smiled at me. Grove seemed like a really great guy. For one, he didn't stare at me like I was a rack of ribs, and for another he didn't seem obsessed with his own bodily fluids. Like spitting and seeing who can piss the furthest in grass. In the couple of days I have been here, I have seen so many things I wish I could erase from my memory.

"So do you want to get something to eat? Because I don't know about you, but I'm starving!" Grove said. Putting a hand on my stomach, I checked to see if I was hungry. I was slightly peckish, so I thought I might as well get something at least before the fighting began, if there were any. Recently, there had been close to no hollow men waking up each night, which was a relief to the exhausted men. Nights were mostly just a couple of men dealing with some wandering skeletons whilst the others stayed on watch and chatted to each other.

Slowly, Grove and I headed back over to where the food was, talking all the while a bit about each other. I found out that he was born in Bowerstone Old Quarter, where his mother still lives, and he joined the army two years ago. He has a wife named Hannah, and at first, he was stationed in Mistpeak Mountains to deal with the mercenaries before being at Mourningwood ever since. As we sat and talked, we ate the same food that was available the day before and sat in an area where we would be out of the way, in case a stray hollow man began to wander.

* * *

We hadn't realised it, but Grove and I had been talking all night, and the sun had just begun to peak its head out of the horizon. There had not been a single undead monster, and thank Avo for that. I noticed Captain Finn climb down the ladder from the barely standing watchtower and head over to where Grove and I were sitting; now with a pint each of bitter ale that was being freely handed out.

"Well, well, don't you two look like a pretty picture," Joked Ben as he accepted a pint one of the men had offered to him.

"Easy Ben, you know there's the woman at home."

"Ah yes, how is Hannah?"

"She's well, still working at the bloody inn, no matter how much she wants to quit."

"Still the problems of too many soldiers on leave wishing for a bit of fun?"

"I seem to recall you being one of those soldiers once."

"Hey, I was drunk, you can't pin anything on me I don't remember."

I laughed at the banter before standing myself up and using the wall as support to push myself along towards the tankard of ale. I didn't quite reach the ale, however.

"Open the gates immediately! The King has arrived!" called the man at the watchtower.

I gasped, and my heart began to rapidly beat as I panicked. Logan was here in Mourningwood, and he'd recognise me for sure. The gates were about to open and let him in, when Major Swift hurried over to me as fast as he could.

"You and Captain Finn go to the shooting range and hide. I'll keep Logan away," he smiled kindly, and I instantly felt calmer.

"Thank you," I said sincerely to Swift, before I hurried to Ben and relayed the Major's orders. The gates were still being slowly opened, so we quickly hurried to a hidden spot by the practice area, and watched the events unfold through a hole in the crumbling fort wall. The space we were hiding in was small and uncomfortable for two of us to be hiding in. we were so close, I could feel his breath tickle my neck as we both tried to see through the broken wall.

Two carriages pulled up and King Logan walked out of one, with half a dozen of his purple armoured men coming out of the other. He looked different; older in fact. It was clear he hadn't had much rest or food. He marched straight over to Major Swift whilst his men held back, standing still with rifles in hand.

"Don't they look friendly," Ben said sarcastically, and I nodded in agreement.

We could just about hear the conversation between Swift and Logan. "Your majesty, what a surprise to see you here," Major Swift shook Logan's hand, even though Logan seemed completely uninterested.

"I heard a rumour that hollow men numbers were dwindling, and wanted to talk about resituating these soldiers to Millfields; we're quite low on numbers there."

"I am pleased to report that there were no hollow men last night, and I would recommend our removal out of Mourningwood Fort."

"Agreed. Your men can begin packing, and moving to Bowerstone, where further orders will be given."

Just then, a piece of paper with writing flew past Logan's feet. He picked it up and examined it, mumbling the words out loud, "wrong order… put 'Army' here… wait. This is Emily's writing…"

"Shit!" Ben swore, patting his pocket. "It's my autobiography; one of the papers fell out!"

Logan knew I was there. I could see him pulling out his sword. "Where is she?!" Logan yelled, grasping Swift's shirt, but the Major refused to talk. Logan turned to him men. "Find her, and kill anyone who tries to stop us!"

Ben held onto me tighter, trying to pull us closer into the gap we were hidden in. "Don't worry; we'll get out of this. We wait until the guards are distracted." He handed me my pistol and sword. "You need to get that blade sharpened, by the way."

We watched as Logan's army searched the fort. Fear was keeping me pretty still, not to mention the fact that it was an impossibly small space that we had to both fit in. The men turned over every table, emptied every tent and were looking in every nook and cranny. Swift's army couldn't do anything, for they'd be shot in an instant. Silence swept across Mourningwood fort. I squeezed my eyes shut.

Footsteps.

I heard Ben sharply intake air, and try to pull himself more into the gap. One of Logan's men had come into the shooting range. His boots clicked and clacked on the stone floor, trying to find any clue as to where we were. He was only a couple of feet away now. There was no more space for us to move back. To the right of where we were, a stone had come loose, and clanged to the ground.

"Oh fuck," I sighed, as the soldier walked towards us.

He leaned down to face us. His smile was menacing and cruel. "Got you."

* * *

_~Authors Note~_

Hello again! So I thought I'd stray from the storyline path a bit, to make things interesting ;) It's been pretty hectic, but now it's the summer holidays, so I should be getting more chapters up soon.

Annabel, Walter and Page should be in the next chapter. Maybe. Depends on how long Emily is with Logan.

Anyways, thank you for following and please review! I would really appreciate it :)

Bye!


	7. Maid in Red

_~Ben Finn POV~_

The guard towering bared his large, oversized teeth above Emily and I and dragged us out of the truly disgusting hole we were crouching in, throwing us at Logan's feet. We were pulled up onto our feet, almost as if the guards were so stupid that they didn't think we could stand up on our own.

King Logan was looming over us in his full uniform of purple, red and silver. His oversized boots clinked each time he took a step and his clothes hung on his shoulders, it was obvious that he had lost a lot of weight. He would not be getting any ladies anytime soon, poor guy.

The King looked over at both of us, examining our appearances. I guess we looked a bit of a sight; our hiding spot was a bit dirty, so we had dust and dirt all over us. I patted down my white sleeves and shook my dirty blonde hair. He smirked.

"You two should have hidden better," He looked over to me, "Captain Benjamin Finn, a trusted member of the army turned into a traitor with Major Swift. You both shall be executed at the front of Bowerstone Castle." Cries of outrage could be heard from the other soldiers, held back by the menacing purple men. "QUIET!" Yelled out Logan, and everyone hushed.

He turned his attention to Emily. "Put Swift and Finn in the second carriage and Emily in mine."

I looked over at Emily. Her expression was confused and frightful. I honestly felt for her; she hadn't seen this man since she, Annabel and Walter had left the Castle in a hurry. Logan had killed her friend, and she was obviously terrified of being alone with him again. She leaned into his ear and whispered something I couldn't comprehend, and Logan nodded. What was she saying to him? When she and I were talking about random things, she'd said about how she and Logan were pretty close, spending hours joking about Annabel and Elliot, together forever. I wished that I knew what she had said to him; because whatever she had made the elite guards walk away from Swiftie's men.

Major Swiftie was pushed into the carriage by several other soldiers of Logan's, and then moved on to shove me inside too. Our rifles and swords were taken away from us and handed to one of the elite guards, the tallest and burliest of the men. Purple soldiers threw their weapons into a small compartment at the back of the carriage to save space in the seating area, since so many were sitting in there. The other red soldiers, including Grove and Tick, looked mournfully on at us, left wondering what to do. But something didn't make sense- why hadn't Logan killed them? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure as hell glad to see them untouched, but why? The tyrant King I knew would have shot them in an instant.

The carriage shook, and the horses pulled away and trotted out of the fort towards Bowerstone. So that was it: no more freedom. I felt unusually calm about it all, and Swiftie looked calm too. He looked up at me, and there was something in his eye. A glimmer of hope, and I instantly knew what we were going to do. No matter what, we'd go down fighting.

* * *

_~Normal~_

"Put Swift and Finn in the second carriage and Emily in mine."

I frowned. Logan had changed a lot since the last time I had seen him. Now that I was closer to him, I could see even more detail, like the wrinkles around his skin that had formed and the bags under his eyes. He looked like he had aged -and not so gracefully at that. I looked over at the red soldiers; all of them had worried expressions as they were being put into a line by Logan's men. They were stood by the wall to the left of the main entrance. They looked like they were to be killed by a firing squad. Desperately, I looked at Logan. He was the only one that could stop the madness that would occur, if nothing was to be done.

I whispered into his ear. "Don't shoot them, I'll go without a fight, but just let them go. Don't do this again."

He seemed to consider this for a moment, before agreeing to my terms and waving his men over to the carriage, and two of them hauled me over to Logan's carriages, despite my willingness to go, so I could have walked on my own. Logan's carriage was rather beautiful, with its purple interior matching his guards and castle. He'd always had a fondness for purple, although he'd never explained why. I sat myself down on one of the seats, with Logan opposite and leaned into the plump cushions. My weapons were sat right next to Logan, away from my arm's reach. Silence wasn't broken until we were well on our way towards Bowerstone.

"It's good to see you Emily," His smile seemed sincere, but it was his eyes. They were cold and emotionless.

"The feeling isn't mutual," I matched his monotone voice. I knew exactly why we were there alone, and that was for information- and I sure as hell was giving him any, so I turned my head to look at the soggy marshland of Mourningwood.

"I need to know where Annabel is."

"Why? So you can ship her off to Reaver and let her be a trophy wife for the rest of her time in Albion, or to reunite her with Elliot in the cold, hard ground?" I snapped back at him.

"I don't have a choice!" He had nothing to say after his outburst, so he leant back, pinching the bridge of his nose. He always did that when he was stressed, or had bad news. It was slightly reassuring to see him act normally, but every time I looked at him, I saw Elliot's face. His expression right before he was sent to his grave.

I had one more question to ask Logan. "Do you sleep?" I asked quietly.

"What?"

"Do you sleep at night? After killing all those people are you still able to fall asleep peacefully."

"…No."

Moments passed, and Logan talked once again. "I still need to know where Annabel is."

I looked him straight in the eye as I said, "You'll have to kill me first you bastard."

I only saw a flash of silver before Logan slashed my arm open. "Hey-"

The blade was held at my neck, blood dropping down from it. "You will tell me, and tell me now." His eyes were darting manically around, with mixed expressions of anger and what I hope was guilt. The dagger was now grazing my neck, drawing more blood. I stayed silent; I would never tell him where Annabel was. He looked at my side- there was still a bandage on it from where it was still healing.

Agony seared through me as he cut my side, digging in deeper. "TELL ME!" He yelled, but I just screamed, not saying any actual words. I could see cuts all over me with blood oozing out, then black spots began to randomly appear in my eyes, one after another- and then I blacked out.

* * *

_~Ben Finn POV~_

We sprang into action, knocking out a few soldiers' teeth and breaking some necks. Although I wasn't the best at hand-to-hand combat, Swiftie was surprisingly remarkable at it. We ducked and dodged blows from the purple creeps, which was pretty impressive since we were in a moving compartment. It had stopped a little bit after the fighting had commenced. In a confined space, it was extremely difficult to move around, but as the bodies dropped, it became easier to get around.

All the soldiers were on the ground, and we could hear screaming nearby. Swiftie and I looked at each other. "Emily," we said simultaneously.

We kicked the door off its hinges and jumped out to see the screaming carriage cut a corner around the road. It wasn't going too fast down the road, so after we grabbed our weapons from the now-dead elite thug, we chased after it, using the marsh as a shortcut.

"Shoot the wheels!" shouted Swiftie from behind me, who was slowing to a stop. He was older than myself, and so didn't have as much stamina- but I'd never say that do his face. If I did there was no doubt I'd be in a shallow grave. I did as commanded, using my rifle to shoot the wheels with excellent precision, If I say so myself. The carriage bumped to a standstill, the horses kicked off their reins and the screaming had stopped. Terrified, the driver ran off towards the town, leaving just Emily, Logan, Swiftie and I.

I crept over to Logan and Emily's compartment, being careful not to make a sound. We had managed to get over to the door, but there was no movement inside. Sword in my left hand, I used my right to unlock the door so I could stab the son of a bitch myself, but instead I found myself in utter shock and disgust.

Logan was gone, and Emily was on the floor bleeding to death.

"Dear God," said Swift from behind me, "Is she still alive?"

I checked her pulse. "She's alive, but barely. How far is Bowerstone from here?"

"Not too far if we take her through the sewers, but we'll have to be careful about not letting her touch anything in there. It could make her condition worse."

I nodded, and then held her bridal style. She was a sorrowful sight- her clothes were covered in blood oozing from slits in her arms, legs and sides and she was moaning in her sleep, no doubt from all the pain. Swift took her weapons and pointed towards the direction of Bowerstone, and we could just about see the tops of roofs peeking out from the trees.

"I managed to get a message to the boys, they'll meet us in Bowerstone in a day or two. Come on Finn, we best get Emily some help."

* * *

Bowerstone industrial was straight ahead, and it looked like paradise to us who had been walking for a long time now, and were weary. It was even worse than last time however inside the city walls. People were lying on the streets either dead or begging; children were carrying crates that were probably as heavy as they were; and everyone there walked with a hunched back, a solemn expression and a feeling of complete despair. People were staring at us, probably because of the bloody mess Emily was in.

"What a dreadfully sorry sight," sighed Swiftie, who looked as deflated as everyone else in industrial.

"Where should I take Emily?"

"You have a place around here, don't you? Take her there whilst I find a doctor. We should split up for a little while and lay low, stay in the house as much as possible."

My place wasn't too far away, so I managed to get there quite quickly. My home was quaint (and dusty) but I liked it, it was my own personal castle. I hurried over to the bed and placed Emily carefully down. She had a cute little frown on her face, a bit like Annabel's. Oh, Annabel. How I wish I could stand a chance against nobles.

The door to my house was kicked open, and a doctor ran in with Swift.

"Out of the way!" He barked. He kneeled over Emily attending to her wounds whilst Swift and I stepped back and watched.

"Do you think she'll make-"

"Don't." Swift interrupted. "She'll be fine. I'm going to find some inconspicuous clothing, and search for Walter and Annabel."

"I'm going to stay."

Swiftie walked out onto the street, and I sat myself down on one of the seats, watching the good old doctor do his thing. It took a long time, but eventually Emily was completely bandaged up. The doctor did a fantastic job, but for a price, so I pulled out what little money I had and hesitantly handed over the gold. I sighed. This girl owed me.

* * *

_~Normal~_

I woke up with the mother of all headaches and a giant pounding in my brain. It seemed almost familiar, since I was getting beaten up so much. Once my eyes had adjusted to the light, I examined the room. It was a slight mess, with dust coating every surface, a bit like the sanctuary only not as extreme. It was a beautiful little home- but whose was it?

"Psst… Emily, are you awake?" A female voice called through the door.

"Just about, yeah,"

Annabel came running to kneel by my bed and give me a huge hug. "It's been forever!"

Her new father's old sword's hilt was digging into me. "Ow, ow, ow!"

"Right, sorry!" She seemed better than usual, there was more colour in her cheeks and she had gained back the weight she had lost since Elliot's murder.

"You're looking a lot better, Annabel."

"Thanks. I met Linda again, do you remember her?"

"Yeah, I remember. She was Elliot's sister right?"

"Right. We talked for a long time, reminiscing about him. It was nice."

"Do you remember that time when Percy tried to kiss you-"

"-And Elliot got a busted lip for defending me! 'You have insulted this maiden's honour'! I gave him my handkerchief after that to wipe up the blood."

"You know what? I bet after all those years he kept that handkerchief." I smiled. It was nice to be talking like this. "He loved you from the very beginning."

She matched my smile. "I know."

"Helloo ladies," Ben Finn walked in, with a bag of food in his arms, "Ah, the lovely Annabel. Changed your mind about tonight?"

I could see the dagger look Annabel was sending to Finn. "No," she said icily. She stood up and dusted herself off. "It's not safe for me to visit often, but I'll come back in a couple of days, ok?"

"Ok," I replied, "Be careful."

"I will," she said on her way out.

"What's with her?" asked Ben.

I looked over at Ben. He looked like a lost puppy, staring at the now closed door. Men are pigs sometimes, I swear.

* * *

_~Authors note~_

This one is a little longer than usual and a bit long winded too, sorry about that! Hope you enjoy the chapter, and don't forget to review, it would really help! :)

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is Emily, the rest of the fable world including Ben Finn (boo) belongs to Lionhead studios.

I'd like to thank Robyn for proofreading for me. You, my friend, are awesome.

Thanks for reading, bye!


	8. Gamer Maid

_~Authors Note~_

Hi! I'm doing the note at the top this time just to explain this chapter a bit. This chapter pretty much has nothing to do with the rest of the main plot, it's just a little sub-story mission that I really wanted to add in! I did use quite a bit of the story's actual dialog in this so I'm sorry about that, since I usually prefer it to be my own, but I liked it too much to get rid of it.

This is a veeery long chapter compared to the others, just because I love putting random details in. As Alexis in Castle once said, "You always find new ways to procrastinate."

Hope you like it and please review, bye!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fable 3. Unfortunately. But Emily is my character.

* * *

_~Third Person~_

The smell of Bowerstone Industrial early in the morning was the same as it had been the last time Captain Finn had been there- Rotting stench (possibly flesh from corpses piling up), heavy smoke billowing out of the factory chimneys and complete utter despair from the workers, though one would assume you can't really smell despair. Finn had picked up some less conspicuous clothing in the marketplace, replacing the red soldier uniform for a beige top, beige trousers… beige everything.

As elite soldiers walked past, Finn pulled down his hat. He had seen many wanted posters of himself pinned up across all of Bowerstone, and although this had bedded him with several vibrant women (all at their places, of course with the lovely Miss Emily at home), it would be rather inconvenient to be executed in front of the castle. Yes, it would be very difficult to sleep with Annabel, not that she was interested. At all. Ben sighed, no matter how hard he tried, she never fell for his charm and good looks. He guessed that she still missed Elliot, seeming as there was no way he wasn't her type.

Speaking of the princess, Annabel, scurried past Ben in a hurry. She was looking particularly lovely this morning, with her normally auburn hair dyed a deep blue in a loose bun, and wearing a woman's highwayman outfit also dyed blue. She wasn't exactly hiding, and for a reason. Being the leader of a revolution meant people had to know who she was when she helped others, so they can pass it on to others her grand tales. She was being worked to the bone by a woman called Page, the new potential ally, whose idea of an emergency is that she wanted to meet and mock the princess. A lot. She also wanted the princess to find Reaver and take him down, though that was pretty much a suicide mission. Annabel didn't want to go anywhere near that creep, but if she was going to gain Page's trust and alliance she was going to have to. This man, who her brother was so desperate to marry her off to, was hopefully going to end up in a shallow grave, should Page's plan actually work.

"Hey, Annabel!"

She turned to see where the voice came from. "Oh, hello Captain Finn. How's Emily?"

"She's uh, good, yeah. She can walk now and her wounds are almost completely healed, with a little scarring. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

Annabel tilted her head, with what Finn had said peaking her interest. "Ok then, what is it?"

He stared deep into her beautiful green eyes, hoping that he didn't make an ass of himself. "Well I just thought if you're not busy, we could head down to the tavern and get a meal sometime."

"Oh," Annabel said disheartened, this conversation not exactly being what she wanted to talk about. "Um, no. Sorry Ben but I don't really like you like that."

Annabel began to walk away before Finn called out again. "May I ask why you're not interested? For my dignity's sake," he asked. The chase was fun, but Annabel wasn't biting the bait, so it was time to call it a day.

Annabel smiled at that, since she knew exactly why she was refusing. She was a hopeless romantic, and seeing Ben with Emily warmed her heart. Even though Finn couldn't see it and was a little fixated on the whole 'bedding a princess' idea, Annabel knew that one day he'd see sense. Emily was always looking after Annabel, and Annabel thought it was time someone looked after Emily. "Let's just say… Emily likes happy endings."

She walked away smiling. He'd understand eventually.

Ben watched Annabel walk away with confusion. What the hell was she on about? He shrugged, and then continued his walk, heading down an empty alley. Three men walked over to him. Relief spread across Ben's face when he recognised the men- Grove, Tick and Jammy were all grinning back at him.

"Hey Finn. Heard you had some money troubles?" Said Jammy through his many, many layers of bandages on his face. Jammy was possibly the luckiest of them all at the fort, with 724 wounds and still standing.

"Well leaving before payday and staying inside a house doing nothing but eating food from the market will do that to you," Ben joked. It was good to see the rest of the men were alive and well.

"Maybe this will help you, but it's a two-man job," Tick handed over a flyer. Drawn on the flyer was a scribbled message with poor handwriting and spelling:

_'To all adventureres!_

_We warlocks, nown to you as Mark, Jim and Ben are in need of two warriors to aid us in our qest to save princess Phrexia! Meet us tonite- when shops close- at our base. Thats Megafun mansion, Bowerstone Markit for all you non-magic people._

_We will paye 500 gold.'_

"I'll take it, Emily has just about healed, so I'm sure she'll help" Said Finn, reading over the flyer twice.

"I bet she will," Grove side whispered to Jammy. He then said to Ben, "So, are you and Emily, you know-"

"No!" Ben exclaimed. "We're just friends."

After some unimportant chatting, the four soldiers parted ways, each going to their own hiding place, waiting for Swift to send the next message of action. The last Ben had heard of Swift was that he was hiding in Page's revolution headquarters; The other soldiers unfortunately were not allowed to have any knowledge of the headquarters in case one is captured and tortured, god forbid. Ben hurried back to his home, where Emily was busy with cooking something that smelt divine. Emily learnt to cook when she came to the castle, whereas before, she was never taught any of it. Ben didn't have any books in his home, and no merchants in industrial sold any, so Emily just cooked, even though she would have preferred to read novels. Whenever Ben finished a chapter of his autobiography however, she would read through it and spell check. She added in the chopped carrots and was carefully stirring the stew when Captain Finn walked in.

"I'm home."

"Hello, food's almost ready."

"Nice. So listen; I found a job for 500 gold, but it needs two people. Care to stretch your trigger finger?"

Emily smiled at that. It had been a while since she was last able to do any fighting, and she was missing it a lot. "What's the job?"

"Three warlocks need two adventurers to save a princess."

"Annabel?"

"No, Phrexia."

Emily sighed. She knew exactly who these three warlocks were. "Would these so-called 'warlocks' be called Jim, Mark and Ben?"

Ben seemed surprised. "Why, yes."

"Then you should know that these men are insane. Every month they ask two adventurers to help them with their games, but nobody is dumb enough to actually do it! Two people did that job once, actually."

"Yeah? What happened to them?"

"I'll let you know when they turn up."

Ben changed his eye's into little puppy dogs. "Come on pleeeease, we need the money and it could be fun-"

"Okay, okay!" Emily laughed. "Just stop doing the eyes, its creepy!"

"Deal."

* * *

_~Normal~_

We were outside Megafun Mansion, flyer in hard and doubtful expressions on our faces. The house seemed dilapidated, desperately in need of repair, though I suppose being three nerds only interested in board games would mean that the house would become a little neglected. I bet they only ever came outside to post more posters for adventurers.

"Wow… please can we leave, before it's too late?" I begged Ben. Surely he could see this would be a bad idea?

But alas, he grabbed my hand instead and dragged me inside, though I had to admit, I wasn't too unhappy about the whole hand thing. If only Ben wasn't so clueless. "Come on, I'm sure they're not _that_ bad."

Oh, but they _were_ that bad. As soon as we walked in, we were welcomed by three men in long, red cloaks with the hoods up. They seemed extremely surprised to see us.

"Ah! Do we have two adventurers, braving their lives to save the kind- and very beautiful- princess Phrexia?"

"Uh… yeah." We stood there awkwardly for a moment before one of the men, the shortest and most soft-featured of them went to the worn cabinet and struggled to pull it open. With a loud creak, the cupboard door flew open. The cloaked man pulled out a blue, cloudy orb from the cupboard and threw it at us. Ben had barely grabbed it before it fell to the floor.

"Jeez- what is this thing?" Ben asked.

"That is the 'Orb of Interplanar Transference'. It's how you're going to save princess Phrexia!"

"Right. Um, whose princess Phrexia, and what are we saving her from?" I enquired, since the poster didn't really have too many details on it.

"You are saving the princess from the evil baron, who mercilessly kidnapped poor Phrexia and holds her trapped inside his castle. But technically… They are small pieces of cards." One of the gamers picked up the card and waved it around. On it was a young woman, dressed like one of the nobles at the party. "The orb will make you smaller, by the way, so you can fit onto our board."

As soon as he said that, the floor felt like it was shaking, and the room began to get a lot larger, with only Ben and me getting any smaller. Once we had stopped changing size, we looked around. Next to us was the orb, still in its original size, and the game table was so high up we couldn't even see anything on it anymore. It was extremely creepy to see everything supersized, especially when two hands were looming towards us.

"Hey, get your hand off me!" I screamed when the hand had picked me up, taking me to the table. I looked over at Ben, and he too was being carried over to the table. The man had too tight a grip on me, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. Eventually, he put me down, and I began to breathe normally.

"Well, that hurt." I looked around. The place seemed nice, with lots of greenery and a beautiful village in front of us. There stood a little sign next to a gate: _Welcome to Lightwater Village._

"Helloo… can you hear us down there?" called a voice from above us. We looked up to see three ginormous, grinning faces; Ben on the left, Mark on the right and Jim in the middle.

"Yes," Ben and I said simultaneously.

"Good. So first, you need to go find out where princess Phrexia is, and I suggest talking to the villagers. They're… also made of cardboard," said Mark.

Jim elbowed Mark in the rib. "Hey! It's no fun if they don't work things out themselves and achieve self-discovery," argued Jim. He seemed rather pleased with his string of words into a sentence, and looked very smug about it.

"This will take forever," muttered Mark under his breath.

"If you want us to finish this as fast as possible so we can grab our money and go, we should get going now," whispered Ben to me, quiet enough so the quibbling fools didn't hear us.

I nodded, and we followed a dusty track down to the small village, where we could see little cut-out people. The village seemed very realistic for a board game, with birds chirping and a soft wind blowing. In front of us stood an old gate, which like the cupboard took a while to finally get open. Dotted over the scenery were the 'people' we were supposed to be talking to.

"Where should we start?" I said out loud, talking more to myself than to anyone in particular.

"How about talking to Arturo? He's the one by the gate- OW!" Gamer Ben was on the receiving end of yet another of Jim's elbow-jabs.

We followed a little pavement in front of us, hoping to find another gate. I looked to my left, and I could see the gate, with a character standing next to him, presumably Arturo. He was the image of an old man, with a cane for support and holding a key in above him.

"Greetings strangers!" said Mark, trying to make it seem as though the cardboard was talking. "I can see from your good looks and your heroic demeanour that you must be on a quest to rescue the princess!"

He paused for a while and we realised he was waiting for us to reply. "Yes, we are. Could you tell us where she is?" Ben replied.

"And quickly," I added. It was obvious that I wanted nothing more than to leave, whilst Ben seemed to be enjoying himself quite a lot.

"Well, I saw her yesterday, carried off by the Baron's evil servants, a troop of Hobbes!"

"Great," I murmured sarcastically. I hated Hobbes, they were just too… squishy, and Walter had agreed with me.

Arturo, or Jim, continued. "They took her through this gate, up to the castle on the hill."

Above us was Ben, dangling a key that was tiny in his hand but large in mine and Ben's. "Here you go! It's to open the gate."

"Hey!" Jim called out. "What, no riddles? No puzzles? It's too easy!"

"Oh just give it a rest, Jim," said Mark, exasperated. "Just let the adventurers continue."

"But-"

We let them continue arguing whilst Ben and I open the gate. The key slot into the hole easily, and after a bit of twisting, there was aloud click, and the gate opened. We followed another small path that led us to the Castle. It seemed normal enough, with a stone bridge and a large number of steps to the entrance. Meanwhile, the gamers had made up, and were now narrating our actions.

"The adventurers decided to investigate the eerie castle on the hill…" commented Mark.

It didn't seem that scary the castle, and Jim agreed with me. "It's not really very eerie though, is it?" Jim turned in irritation to Ben. "Ben, you did the tower, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I though you said pretty. I mean, look at all the fluffy bunnies? Aren't they adorable?" By now it was obvious to tell who was who. Ben was the more… feminine of the men, whilst Jim was their bossy leader, leaving just Mark to be the normal one, despite being a gaming Warlock who never leaves the house.

"Let me fix this," said Mark.

Suddenly, the sweet rabbits changed into giant rabid wolves, snarling and steadily walking towards us. I saw blood on their mouths, and they were hungry for more. Both Ben and I took out our guns; his rifle, and my trusty Holy Vengeance. One by one we shot the wolves down as they came towards us, neither of us getting scratched or bitten. Ben had his back to one, and as it jumped I managed to get a shot between the eyes.

"Thanks," growled Ben, as he finished off the last of the wolves.

"And so the hero slew the last of the wolves which proved to be a mighty challenge!" narrated Jim, who was getting more excited by the minute as the adventure unfolded.

Ben, however, was not impressed. He huffed, "Does _everything_ haveto be about fighting?"

Jim looked at him like he had just asked if breathing was essential to life. "Yeah. Story is conflict."

And so we continued on into the castle, with me hoping that this job would be over soon and we could grab our money and go. I was beginning to miss the shabby home I had grown accustomed to whilst hiding from Logan's dogs.

* * *

Inside the castle was a room that looked a lot like one of the many factories in Bowerstone Industrial, with a conveyor belt with… "What?!"

"Are those… Teddy bears?!" asked Ben. He had the same quizzical expression on his face that I had on mine.

Jim was once again criticizing. "Teddy Bears? What are Teddy Bears doing here?"

"Aren't they sweet? I put them in," A smug gamer Ben said, being his girlish self, "Nice, eh?"

"This is the evil Baron's castle, notice the word _evil_, and you put in TEDDY BEARS?!" Jim was practically screaming at Ben now, although we couldn't see them. My guess by all the sounds, Jim was close to strangling gamer Ben to death.

"Hey, Hey, hey! Let me fix this- again." Mark changed the bears to heavy weapon machinery, making the place much more… evil Baron's lair. "You see? Much better."

Suddenly, two cardboard characters appeared on the conveyor belt. It was the same one that Mark has shown us earlier, Princess Phrexia, along with another. He was another old man holding a cane, although no key this time.

Gamer Ben spoke in a remarkably high pitched voice to imitate the princess. "Help! OH, please help! I have been captured by the evil Baron!"

"Oh, brother," I heard Ben mutter beside me. Even he must have felt this as being so horrific, that it was worth more than 500 gold. "We are really going to need a pay rise."

"I second that," I agreed.

"Muahahaa," Started Jim, in a deeper, raspier voice. "I am the evil Baron, and the princess shall be my wife!"

"I shall never marry you!" Said gamer Ben, once again in his princess Phrexia voice.

We continued down the stair to the doors, Ben noticed a something to the left and stopped in his tracks. "Emily, wait. There's a chest here, it could help us." He proceeded into opening the chest. A wizard then popped out. "AH! I mean, ah, a wizard." Ben cleared his throat and pretended that he hadn't been scared by a cardboard wizard popping out of a chest.

As I tried to stifle my giggles at Ben, Jim began to speak for the wizard. "Riddle me ree-"

Mark cut him off. "No, we are not having one of your puzzles, they are far too hard! Look, just give them the sword."

After a couple of seconds, the wizard ben back inside the chest and a sword came out of it, with a dark red aura. I looked at Ben. "What are we supposed to do with this?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "I don't know, and I don't think 'they'-" He pointed up to where the three gamers would be if there wasn't a roof, "-are going to help much. Who knows, maybe it'll help later." He picked it up and replaced his own sword for that one.

We walked away from the chest and continued down the hall to the door. Kicking the door open, we came to a large, spacious room, with the only thing in it being a lever. We slowly walked toward it. We looked at each other. "On three?" Ben nodded. After counting, we pulled the lever towards us, which just plunged us into darkness. We stood there for a moment waiting for something to happen but it never did.

Above us, Jim sighed. "Okay, who set up the lever?"

"I thought you did, Jim."

"Hang on; it was Ben, wasn't it?"

"No, no I could have sworn it was Mark."

"Oh, let's just make something up, okay?"

"I have an idea!" Cried Ben. Butterflies appeared out of nowhere, fluttering around Ben and I. "A cloud of lovely butterflies!"

Jim seemed on the verge of giving up. "Worst. Game. Ever."

Mark intervened at the last minute by proposing another idea. "How about a standard hollow men attack?"

The other two agreed on this, much to Ben's dismay. Wisps slowly began to seep into the ground, and the undead, fit with weapons and armour, unleashed their fury. I just about heard "Oh, for fu-"before I had to unsheathe my gun once again and shoot the hollow men down. The two of us were back-to-back, firing bullets one after the other. It reminded me of when we fought at Mourningwood.

There was just one hollow man left. Muscling together all the energy I had left, I rammed my sword into its stomach, causing it to explode into little bits of dust. We stood for a moment, gathering our breath.

"Any injuries?" Ben asked me in between breaths.

"None. What about you?"

"A little scratch on my arm by aside from that I'm fine."

I looked over at his arm to see his sleeve torn a little, with a small amount of blood dripping out. It didn't seem like an urgent injury and Ben wasn't all that bothered by it, so we continued on through the next door.

* * *

The door led to a giant, open cavern. It was red and dark, with a small blanket of fog surrounding us. There was a stone bridge in front of us, and visible on the bridge was the baron, without the princess. By this time, I'd had enough. I wanted to go back to Ben's apartment in Industrial and sleep until noon, not have to spend late into the night fighting to save a piece of cardboard just so we could pay for food and rent.

"What now?" I sighed. It was probably coming to midnight now. Ben, however, looked wide awake and still excited.

"Foolish adventurers!" Cried out the Baron. "Your pursuit ends here, for you will be devoured by the killer monsters of this ravine. Ha!" He disappeared, leaving the bridge open for us to walk over.

"Charming fellow isn't he?" Ben joked.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Come on; let's finish this so we can go home."

Ben raised an eyebrow at me. "So, you think my apartment is home, eh?"

I didn't look at him. "For now," I replied.

We hurried over the bridge and climbed up a steep rocky hill. I continued for a little, until I realised that Ben wasn't following me anymore. I ran back, trying to see where I'd lost him when I saw him to my left picking something up. I moved closer to see what it was.

"Are those… condoms?"

Ben lifted his chin, trying to seem dignified with his reply. "Yes. I don't want the many… many women have to raise a child on their own."

Right then, I wanted to shoot him for being so weird. But instead, I turned around and continued up the hill, desperately trying to find the pathetic end to this game. We managed to reach the top of the hill, where there lay a giant crater. There were human remains placed everywhere, and also…

"CHICKENS?!" Jim was above us screaming at Gamer Ben. I was surprised at this point that Gamer Ben was still standing and breathing, the way Jim was practically trying to kill him. Mark to the right stood bored, waiting for the feud to end so they could continue the game. "You know, when I told you to design something demonic for this level, I did not say CHICKENS!"

Gamer Ben choked out a reply. "I- thought it was time- to put something cute in."

Mark pulled Jim away, and Jim begrudgingly allowed himself to let Gamer Ben get back oxygen into his lungs. Gamer Ben rubbed his sore neck. "I also thought it would make us think more about our relationship with food and that."

"This is not a philosophical discovery of the meaning of life; it's a grand, exciting adventure to save a beautiful princess."

'_These men take these games way too seriously,' _I thought to myself.

"Why do I always have to fix things," muttered Mark, who then began to move things around.

"What are you doing to my chickens?" Cried Gamer Ben, as Mark replaced them with larger, black-shadowed chickens.

"I'm improving them. There- I behold, a fire-breathing, demon chicken!"

The chicken coughed up a fireball. I sighed. "Now would be a good time for Annabel's magic."

"Well, we still have our guns," Ben smiled his flirty grin at me. I felt myself thaw at his smile, though it shouldn't have. I shook myself out of my dream-world and began shooting.

They were fairly easy to finish, since one shot killed them instantly, but it was getting close to them that was the problem. Every few seconds, a fireball whizzed past our faces, singing hair and burning small parts of our clothes. We finished off the last chicken.

"And so the mighty adventurers triumphed over the fire-breathing demonic, um… chickens, of Doom!"

"Anyway, on they ran, seeking a way out of these dark and gloomy caverns."

* * *

We walked out of the cavern to the other side of Lightwater village, shielding our eyes whilst they adjusted. I almost laughed with glee- I could see the end of the table!

We could hear Princess Phrexia -or Gamer Ben- call out. "Help me adventurers, you're my only hope!"

"You adventurers will meddle with me no more! My army of elite Hobbes will eliminate you!" Yelled out the Baron, who was beside Princess Phrexia. They were a long way away, with a wall of Hobbes in front, blocking our way.

"Close and bloody?" Ben side-whispered to me.

I looked at the Hobbes and smiled. "Let's do it."

Swords in hand, we ran down to the Hobbes and began to hack down our squishy enemies. It was good to kill some of these again; I hadn't encountered them since our journey to Mourningwood Fort, at Mistpeak Monorail. The elite Hobbes was much were difficult, and every extra Hobbe I fought the more frustrating it became as they dodged my swings.

I was stuck for a long time on a cocky little bastard, missing my hits with acrobatics. Eventually, I pulled away, giving me enough time to pull out my gun and squeeze the trigger, aiming for his head. He fell to the ground with a satisfying thud and I realized that all of the Hobbes were one the floor, dead.

Mark narrated. "The Baron's elite guards lay at the adventurers' feet! There was nothing between the adventurers and the Baron."

We walked towards the Baron and Princess Phrexia.

"I challenge you, good sir, to personal combat, as I will not fight a lady," The Baron said, and I snorted. In my burned, smelly clothes, I looked absolutely nothing like a lady. These men were just so sexist, if they thought I was still a delicate flower after all the fighting they had seen me do. "However, I will tell you now- I am immune to all weaponry, except for one. It's a magical, dark sword that lays in my possession that you couldn't possibly have."

I looked at Ben's back, where he had kept the sword, oozing in Hobbe's blood. He looked at me and smiled, pulling the sword out and handing it to me. "Why are you giving me this?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "He's being an idiot about you being a dainty lady. And besides, my arm hurts." I saw that the small graze that he had collected earlier had significantly bled out more. I took the sword without asking anymore questions.

"Wait, wait, wait!" protested the Baron. "I can't fight a girl-"

I slashed down the cut-out and watched it fall to the floor. "Lady my arse."

"Nooo! I am slain… ack!"

"What kind of rubbish sword lets you kill the main villain in one blow?" asked Mark.

"Well you gave them the Baron's sword!"

"Yeah, but It wasn't supposed to be so easy to get!"

"Give it a rest. Let's get back to the game."

"Oh, my two, brave heroes! Thank you ever so much, how can I ever repay you?" cried out Princess Phrexia, still in Gamer Ben's girlish pitch.

"How about giving us our money and making us normal size again?" I replied irritably. What? I was tired, and wanted some sleep.

"Alright, let us create a conclusion first. Heh heh, I know-" Ben said deviously, "The two Heroes suddenly realise that their adventuring has brought them closer together, and that they have fallen in love. They kiss and live happily ever after-"

"No, I don't want a happy ending!" Jim moaned.

I sighed. "Just get us to normal size again."

The three warlocks gave up. "Alright."

The ground began shaking again, and we began to shoot up. We jumped off the table, and the growing slowly stopped, and the orb next to our feet. It felt good to be back in the real world. The three men were beaming at us.

"Congratulations!"

"You were truly amazing!"

"You lived! You didn't happen to see any other adventurers there whilst you were at it, did you?"

I put my hand up to stop them. "Okay, where's our 500 gold?"

The men shifted awkwardly. "Uh, yeah- about that-"

"You don't have our gold, do you?!" I accused them. Fantastic- I spend a whole night fighting monsters and I wasn't even going to get paid.

"Well, um," The three dived into the pockets of their robes and pulled out all the gold they had. They counted for a little while, before answering. "We have 72 gold here. It appears that we spent it all on that orb over there." He pointed to the blue, glowing orb that still remained on the floor.

I dove for it and picked it up. "Then I'm taking this."

"WHAT!?" The three men said simultaneously.

"I'm taking it," I said firmly, "And then I'll sell it for the money you owe us."

"But the orb cost us more than 500 gold!"

"Yeah, you can't do that!"

They were still protesting when I walked out of Megafun Mansion with Ben in tow, heading towards industrial. I could hear Ben laughing behind me. "What?" I asked him.

"I did not expect the quiet little maid to do something like that."

I blushed. "I like being paid."

"I can see that."

We walked along quietly down the cobbled streets, with nobody in sight except a few drunks and whores. I was exhausted from all the running and fighting, but it was still a beautiful night for a stroll, so we walked slowly. I looked up at the stars, trying to see any constellations that Elliot had taught me once. I must have been night gazing for a while, as I hadn't realized we had come to the house.

We walked in, and I was instantly comforted by the familiarity. I went upstairs whilst ben stayed downstairs and we changed out of our dirty fighting gear into our sleepwear. I went downstairs to see if Ben needed anything.

"No I'm fine," he replied.

"Okay, then goodnight."

Before I turned away, I felt a pair of lips softy touch my cheek, and Ben was standing right next to me. I turned a deep shade of red.

"What was that for?" I asked, not daring myself to speak louder than a whisper.

"I just think you're the kind of girl that likes happily ever after's." And with that, he went to his bed, and I went to mine.

I had never slept more soundly.


	9. Reaver's Maid

I woke up to the smell of breakfast in the morning. Mm, eggs and bacon- my favourite. I slowly pulled myself out of the worn bed and rubbed the sleep out my eyes before tying my dull brown hair into a ponytail. I put on a soft, pink blouse that Jasper had wonderfully dyed for me the night before and paired it with a beige long skirt. I opened the windows to see what the weather was like- dull and foggy, the usual. I sighed. I had been in industrial for almost a month now and I was a little sick of seeing everyone's depressed faces as people began their days either begging or labouring away in a factory. I always tried to give as much money as I could to the beggars, but I was low on gold myself. Ben and I had struck big with the job we just finished two nights ago, selling the blue orb we were given (or took) for 1000 gold! Of course most of that went to feeding as many people as we could, along with paying our rent and feeding ourselves.

"Emily, Breakfast!" Ben called from down the stairs.

My ears turned pink from just his voice. What was wrong with me? My mind went back to the night we came back from the job and he kissed me on the cheek. I didn't really understand why he'd done it, but I was glad. Maybe he liked me? No; he likes Annabel. I rolled my eyes, shook my head and came back to reality to go downstairs for food. I was starving. When I came down, I saw Ben putting breakfast onto two plates for us.

"Well this is a surprise," I said, still pretty tired, "I don't think I have ever seen you cook before."

"Well my personal chef decided to sleep in, leaving me to die of hunger if I didn't do anything," He joked, passing me a plate to tuck into. "Besides, I know a little bit of cooking. I just don't enjoy it is all."

We ate our breakfast in silence until a letter came through the door. "I'll get it." I said.

On the floor was one letter, crisp and unbent. I bent down to pick it up, and I instantly recognised the handwriting as Major Swift's. It had Ben's name on it, so I gave it to him and continued my breakfast as Ben read out loud.

"_Ben,_

_"I hope this reaches you well and in time. It's been very hectic at the rebel's headquarters, but now we need you and Emily to come in and report to Page- the leader. Fair warning; she's a bit of a handle, and doesn't take to strangers and soldiers in her secret base, so NO FLIRTING. Though knowing you, that'll be like trying to talk to a wall._

_"Below is a map to get to the rebel headquarters. Memorize it, and then burn it. The location can't be compromised. Good luck, and be careful Ben. I know how reckless you can be._

_"Swift."_

We read over the directions several times before throwing into a fire and making sure it was fully incinerated. "So, sewers. They couldn't have found a more hygienic place to set up?" I joked, tying my cloak and pulling my hood up.

"Apparently not but at least we have no open wounds that can get infected. We should get going, Swiftie's message seemed quite urgent."

We hurried out into the morning fog of Industrial and followed Major Swift's instructions, which lead us to a door to the sewers by the tavern. It was easy to tell that the door had been used recently, due to how easily we were able to open it and walk in.

Inside was truly disgusting. I guess it was your average sewer; however I didn't enjoy spending much time in them, so I just really wanted to get out of there. We waded our way through a lot of unmentionables to finally discover the hideout, which was a little better hygienically speaking, but still quite terrible. We were stopped by two rebels with heavy machinery that made sure we weren't some of Logan's followers before letting us in to see Page, Walter, Annabel and Major Swift.

We were taken into another room. In the middle was a mucky map table a lot like the one we had in the Sanctuary, with four figures hunched over it, trying to plan something or other. They hadn't noticed Ben and I come in, so Ben cleared his throat, and they all turned to see who was there.

"Emily!" Annabel cried, hurrying over to give me a small hug. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to see you recently, things have been so busy!"

Next was Walter, who also pulled me in for a hug. "I'm glad to see you're alright. I wanted to visit, but it wasn't safe."

"It's okay Walter," I replied. "I understand."

"I hope Captain Finn here hasn't harassed you at all this past month, Emily," Major Swift said from across the room, standing next to Ben, whose grin stretched across his entire face.

I turned red remembering the kiss a couple of nights before, and looked at the ground so nobody could see the maroon colour I was going. "Oh, n-no sir, not at all," I stammered.

"If we're all done with the reunion," an irritated voice said, and I turned to see who it was. She was a tall, dark skinned woman wearing men's clothes and her brunette dreadlocks tied up into a ponytail. She stood by the map table and looked quite aggravated that we were saying our hellos and not paying attention to her. This must have been Page, the leader of the rebels.

"Well, hello there…" Ben said in his most seductive voice. I sighed. It wasn't two minutes in and he'd already forgotten Swift's warning.

Page looked at the two new arrivals. "So you must be Captain Finn and maid Emily," She said it with such disdain; I felt like she was judging me by my occupation and name. Nevertheless she came over and shook our hands. "I'm glad you're both safe. We need you for our next move against Logan and his followers, Emily."

I was surprised. "Why me?"

"We wanted to attack Reaver in his own house, make the bastard know he's not safe anywhere. So I sent three of my men down just to see where we could sneak in a few days ago- and they haven't come back. We believe that they are still alive and were caught by Reaver, but we need to make sure."

She passed me a poster with Reaver's face on it with the title saying: '_Maid needed at Lake View Manor.' _So they wanted me for my cleaning skills? "I'm sorry, I still don't understand-"

"-We need you to get the job and find out where our men are- If they're there- then report back to us," Page interrupted.

"Um, sorry, but this is Reaver. He's seen me at the mansion, and he's knows I'm loyal to Annabel. What am I supposed to say to him that won't make him shoot me?" I asked. I certainly didn't feel like dying yet, I really wanted to see Annabel on the throne first.

Walter stepped in at this point. "As far as Reaver knows, you were fired when Annabel ran away from the castle. Your cover story is you've been living on your savings so far and now you're broke. You saw the leaflet, and thought you'd give it a go. You haven't heard from Annabel since the day Elliot- uh, since _that_ day."

"Here," Page said, before throwing to me some clothes, "Picked this up especially for you, for your interview. When you get the job, you'll be staying at his mansion. We won't see you until you have information." With that, everyone left so I could get changed in private.

I looked down at the leaflet again. I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw it was Walter. He said to me softly, "You know, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. It's just because you're the only one of us with experience to get the job-"

"Walter! Don't worry; I want to do this," I said, "For Annabel to get on the throne. And for Elliot, I don't want him to die in vain." I smiled and raised my fist. "For the revolution. Long live the new Queen."

"Let us hope," muttered Walter, "Let us hope…"

He walked off and closed the door, leaving me to my thoughts. I looked at the clothes- they were beautifully made, and must have been expensive to buy. There was a light blue long skirt, with a matching short sleeved blouse along with a brown corset. Brown laced shoes were also there, with a pair of small, frilly ankle socks.

There was a brown box in the pile of clothes, which when I opened I discovered to be a box of make-up. I rarely wore make-up, usually only for very special occasions, and I guess being a spy was one of them. So after I had changed into my new clothes, I put on a little of it and pulled my hair out of its ponytail to fall down to my shoulders. It had gone wavy from where it had been in the ponytail and suited the outfit, so I decided to keep it like that, after brushing out a few knots.

When I came out of the room, I saw Page, Ben and Major Swift waiting outside. Ben, which he was prone to, was arguing with Page about something and hadn't heard me come out. "I don't see why I couldn't try and get a job there too!" Ben was saying.

"Because I only need one person out there, and you are not a female maid!" Page yelled back.

"But what if she gets into trouble?"

"She won't!"

"But you can't be sure of that-"

I cleared my throat, and Major Swift, who had been sitting on a bed with his eyes closed, pinching the bridge of his nose, started and looked at me. The other two had also stopped their bickering.

"That looks really good, brings out the colour in your eyes," Page said. I instantly began liking her then.

I smiled. "Thanks," I said, "Where did Annabel and Walter go?"

"They went back to some place called Sanctuary, or something?"

"Right. Well, I should get going then."

"Could I speak with you for a moment first, Emily?" Asked Major Swift, who had now stood up and gestured to walk with him.

"Of course," I replied.

"Emily, wait." I turned around to see Ben, with a worried expression on his face. He seemed frustrated, whether it was at me, himself or Page I wasn't sure. "Just- be careful, okay?"

I nodded. "I will be."

I turned and followed Major Swift, who was taking me to the exit of the rebel headquarters and back out to Industrial. "I wanted to talk to you about Ben."

This sparked my interest. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, there's nothing wrong exactly. It's just- I worry about him sometimes. I've been with him for so long; he's like the son I always wanted. And his interest in women has worsened. I heard he tried to have a go at Annabel?"

"Um, yes Major." I didn't know what to say, or where this was going.

"Well, I'm glad she didn't have mutual feelings. It would have ended in misery. Anyway, I was just wondering, what with you and him living in the same house if you two were…"

I suddenly realised what he was saying, and I instantly turned a bright pink. "O-Oh, goodness no Major, I-It's not like that!" I stammered. "We're just friends."

He laughed loudly. "Alright, I was just checking. Although I do believe you would be a very good influence on him. Oh well," he shrugged, as if to say _what can you do? _"Good luck at Reaver's mansion. I hope you come back in one piece."

We were now at the exit. "Thank you, Major," I said sincerely, before opening the door to industrial.

"Emily?"

I turned around. "Yes?"

"Call me Swiftie."

* * *

"What business do you have at Lave view manor?" The guard enquired who stood outside a large gate, the entrance to Reaver's home.

"I am here to apply for the maid position," I replied as calmly as I could. Inside, I was panicking. Everybody knew the stories about Reaver and the people who go 'missing' from his manor. I just hope I don't end up as one of them.

The guard let me in, muttering a "good luck" under his breath. Lake View manor was stunning, with an access to the lake, well-tended flowers and many white stairs to the door. The manor itself was huge, probably only a little bit smaller than Bowerstone Castle. In the gardens was also a large white statue of Reaver, standing tall and proud. It's a wonder he was able to stand for the whole time posing without shooting the man making it. Shrugging off my thoughts, I began to ascend the stairs, my heart in my throat.

I knocked the giant door, and waited for a reply. When the door opened, I could see that it was a man with red hair that answered it, who I did not recognise. He wore a black jacket with the Reaver Industries' insignia along with red trousers to match his hair. This, I assumed, was Reaver's butler.

"We're not interested in what you're selling, go away," He said. He tried to slam the door, but I quickly threw my foot in to stop it.

"I'm not here to sell anything!" I held up the flyer. "I'm here to apply for the maid job."

He seemed genuinely surprised. "Really?" he asked.

I nodded. He then let me inside, which was a sight! There was food and drink spilt everywhere, along with half-dressed people and confetti. A chicken ran past us and jumped up the stairs, disappearing into another room. I sighed. If I got the job, I'd have a _lot _of work to do before I could even begin to find the three rebels. I found out that the man who answered the door was named Barry Hatch, who told me to wait in the hallway whilst he goes and get Reaver. He went up the stairs and followed the same way the chicken went.

I looked at the artwork, which all seemed to be of Reaver. One person was snoring very loudly, with their coat barely covering themselves as they slept soundly. There was a beautiful piano- or it would have been, if one person wasn't laying on it and if somebody hadn't spilt ale on the keys. I heard two voices coming closer, so I hurried back to stand by the door and checked that my pistol was loaded- just in case.

"Ah, hello there my dove!" Said Reaver, wearing a most extravagant outfit. He was also wearing the Reaver Industries' insignia, with a white jacket and white trousers. He still had his mask on, no doubt from the party they would have had last night. "So you're here for the maid position?"

"Umm… yes."

"Good. Barry, take Miss… I'm sorry, what's your name?"

I told them. "Emily… what a lovely name," Reaver said huskily. I think he was still a little drunk, what with all the swaying. "Hatch, take Emily to the servants quarter, you know what to do." And with that, Reaver stumbled off.

That was easy.

I was taken down to a rather empty servant quarter. "I'm afraid it's just you and I, for servants," Mr Hatch said, "Reaver has a bit of a reputation for shooting most of his workers. I'm surprised anyone answered. So are you not afraid of Reaver, or just dumb?"

"I just needed the money and nowhere else was hiring," I said, sticking to the alibi Walter had given me.

We stopped at the end of the hall, and Mr Hatch pointed to one of the doors. "That's your room," he said, "clothes are on the bed, get changed and meet me outside."

I nodded and walked into the room. It was a little bare, but I saw the clothes and got changed into my maid outfit, which had a very short skirt and low-cut neckline. I did however find enough skirt to hide my pistol using a strap on my thigh. I left my sword on the bed along with my other clothes and hurried out, whilst quickly putting my hair into a bun. Mr Hatch was outside, whistling to himself. He saw me and beckoned me to follow him, back to the main entrance.

"Over there-"He pointed to a cupboard, "-are your cleaning supplies. Just clean around the people and get this place spotless."

He walked off, leaving me to myself to clean up the entire entrance. I was going to be stuck here forever.


	10. Party Maid

As I finished up tidying around the last passed out drunk, I saw the time. Was it already coming to evening? My first day, and I was already out of puff. However, I lumbered on, throwing the cleaning supplies back where they belonged and went to find Mr Hatch. I was hoping to avoid Reaver, even if he didn't remember me- thank Avo for that.

Reaver's mansion was huge, with so many rooms and hallways leading off; it was very easy to get lost. I was wandering through the east wing trying to look busy with a duster, straining my ears for any rebel's voices when I heard someone call my name- It was Mr Hatch.

"Thank goodness I found you- did you finish the entranceway?"

"Yes Mr Hatch, I was trying to find you to see what my next job was."

He asked me to follow him, all the way down to the kitchen. The kitchen was disgusting- dirty pots and pans were all over the floor, along with what I guessed was supposed to be dinner but looked more like somebody had been very ill during the night. The washing bowl was piled high with plates and cutlery and half the food had almost certainly gone off.

I covered my nose as the stench made me stagger back. "What the f-"

"-Unfortunately we haven't had a chef or cleaner in a while, and what with myself and Reaver being too busy to clean, I suppose we just let the kitchen get… messy," Mr Hatch tried to clear himself a path to the shelves, with great difficulty, "If I cook and you clean, maybe neither of us will be shot today. Reaver expects his dinner promptly at seven O'clock and it is… coming to six now."

We wasted no time in getting the kitchen back to its former glory and presenting a decent enough meal for Reaver in an hour. I started with trying to find a bag for waste to throw out later, and spent a good amount of time sniffing jars and seeing which one would be poisonous if consumed. All throughout, Mr Hatch made space to prepare food, a mighty task indeed. It seemed every five minutes one of us slipped on an unusual liquid spilling out of a bag somewhere, until finally all the bags were gone, and all that was left was to properly clean the kitchen and put away equipment. The clock chimed for seven, and Reaver's food was ready, so we rushed up to the dining room to present the dinner.

Thankfully, Reaver was late. He waltzed in and sat down, inspecting everything on the table and mumbling to himself. He completely reeked of alcohol, and swayed in his seat with myself standing next to him, pouring him a drink. Not that he needed another one. Whilst he was inspecting, I stood with my heart in my throat, not daring myself to breathe. Finally, he spoke. "Well, it seems you have passed your first day, Miss Emily," he said, before adding under his breath but just audible enough, "And that's not all you passed." I felt a hand slap my rear, and it took all my willpower to not slap that arrogant, pissed man in the face. Instead, I turned an embarrassing shade of red, as always.

Luckily, after that Mr Hatch and I were dismissed, so I headed back down to the kitchen to finish off my tidying, seeming as otherwise I would just have to do it tomorrow. Cleaning the dishes also gave me time to think about certain things. I thought about Annabel, and how she would be doing right now. She seemed so distant. We used to be stuck like glue, but now we seemed to have drifted apart. She was a leader of a revolution, after all, and didn't have as much time on her hands. She was on her way to being Queen as well, and I was just a humble maid, whose only dream is to maybe sing and explore outside of Albion for a bit, before coming back and doing my job of being a maid. No wonder Ben liked her more than me.

And then there was Ben. No matter how much I protested, my mind kept wandering to him. His flirty grin, enchanting eyes and stunningly good humour made me want to swoon. Avo, I had it bad. I wondered if him and Page had made up from that argument, and were now starting to become friends. And then more than that. I shook my head; I was going insane.

"Arguing with yourself?" A voice called out from the door. Mr Hatch was there with a mop and bucket. "Reaver threw up in my room. Do you mind cleaning it for me? I mean I would myself but I've got a lot of Reaver's paperwork to do and-"

I cut him off. "It's fine, Mr Hatch. I don't mind." I took the mop and bucket off of him and followed him to his room. There were two major things I noticed: one, his room was a lot bigger than mine. And two, Reaver was passed out half-dressed lying on the bed, with sick on the floor.

Mr Hatch looked at the unconscious figure, before sitting at the desk and getting on with a mound of paperwork. "He does this about once a week, rather inconveniently."

We chatted whilst he wrote and I cleaned. "So how long have you worked for Reaver?" I asked.

His red hair bobbed as he talked. "About six months now, surprisingly. He tends to shoot people at three."

"Why did you sign up for the job then?"

"Why did _you_?" He retorted.

I stayed silent for a while, before I remembered the story Walter had told me. "I was fired from Bowerstone Castle when Princess Annabel left. I managed to live on my savings for a while, but then I started running low. I was desperate, and nowhere else was hiring." Mr Hatch seemed satisfied with my answer, as he continued to write, letting me continue to clean.

"I was an orphan," Mr Hatch said, now turning to look at me, "And after I left the orphanage in Industrial I was stuck on the streets, begging for coin. I saw posters advertising for workers at Lakeview Manor and thought, '_hey, what could be worse? Dying on the streets slow and painfully, or living comfortably until Reaver shoots me?_' I signed up the very next day. I'm sorry, I tend to blab lot when I'm nervous-" He seemed to have thought about what he had just said and immediately shut up.

"Oooh, do I make you nervous, Mr Hatch?" I teased, and laughed it off. I couldn't see Mr Hatch's face anymore, as he had buried it in paperwork.

I had soon finished cleaning after Reaver, who was still passed out on the bed. He looked very odd and disturbing. "Would you like me to take him back to his room, Mr Hatch?" I asked.

"If you can carry him without my help, then go ahead."

It was quite a task to carry Reaver, especially up the stairs to his room, which Mr Hatch had thankfully given me directions to. It was fortunate that Reaver was out like a light, since it meant he didn't feel a thing every time I accidently dropped him. Okay, I did it on purpose once, for trying to hit on me at the Castle and the rear-slapping earlier that evening. I may have done it twice. Finally, we made it to his room, so I threw him onto his bed and using a wet towel mopped up the drool and sick on his face.

At this point, Reaver was stirring, so it was a good time to get the hell out of there, before he made me stay and do… things. Just thinking about it made my stomach heave. Or maybe that was just because of the stuff on his face was making me ill. I shrugged it off, and headed to my room for what I thought was a well-deserved rest.

I walked past the kitchen on my way to my room, and my stomach rumbled. I realised that I had completely forgotten to eat, so I quickly grabbed some leftovers and boiled two cups of tea- one for myself and one for Mr Hatch. It would be a good idea to keep him on my side. He was fast asleep by the desk, snoring softly. I smiled, put his tea on the desk and threw a blanket over him before departing to go to my room. Needless to say, I slept like a log.

~Six days later~

So it turned out that every week, Reaver held a secret society party for the rich and unclothed as an excuse for a large orgy. It's fun for them, not for the help. So that day was filled with Mr Hatch and I being worked to the bone to prepare food, drink and décor in time. I had just finished mopping and shining the marble floors, so I took a small break. I'd already been there almost a week, and hadn't heard any rebel's screams.

"Emily!" Mr Hatch called out. "I need to you to give these taste samples to Reaver, see which one he likes the most." He handed me a platter of mixed canapés, all beautifully decorated. I nodded and headed over to Reaver's room, where Reaver was avoiding the workers we had hired to put up the banners and set up the table for the nobles.

I knocked. "Enter," a voice from inside the door said. I walked in with the platter to see Reaver reading through some factory statements and receipts. I coughed politely to get his attention. "Ah, are these the food selections?"

"Yes," I replied quietly. After a week of trying very hard to stay away from him in his mansion, I loathed talking to him. "Mr Hatch has been experimenting and wanted to see which one you liked the most."

"I'll have a plate of you my dear," he said huskily, coming to my side to nibble my ear and cop a feel.

I clenched my fists trying not to punch him in the face and continue to kick him in the stomach until somebody restrained me. However instead, I decided to change to subject. "So could you- uh- taste the food please?"

This seemed to work, as he stopped trying to eat me and moved on to eat the food. In between mouthfuls, he said "I do hope you'll join us in our little after-party, a little minx like you would be a marvellous addition to our group… mmm…"

I stayed silent, and prayed to Avo that he didn't shoot me where I stood. Once he had tasted each one, he chose the lot for his party, and sent me away to get ready. Apparently, there was a new uniform on my bed, especially for these parties. I prayed to Avo that it wasn't a shorter skirt; it was hard enough hiding my pistol in what little material I had.

I headed down to the kitchen, where Mr Hatch was running around trying to cook, bake, fry, chop and simmer all at the same time. I could see one of the pans was about to set the food on fire, so I quickly pulled it out of the fire to cool for a while.

"Thanks," Mr Hatch said, "So which one did Reaver like the most?"

"Uh… he wants all of them."

There was a moment where Mr Hatch let the realisation of how much work he had to do sink in. Then there was a simple look of utter defeat, and he ambled his way to the cupboards, and pulled out all the ingredients. He seemed completely miserable.

"Don't worry Mr Hatch, I'll help," I said, before going over to the oven and checking on the dishes.

After all the food was cooked, I left Mr Hatch to it so I could get changed. The uniform was exactly where Reaver said it was- a dark red dress with short sleeves and a very short skirt, along with a tiny black apron to match and black stockings. I looked like a gothic whore in industrial, but I didn't have a choice. I pulled my hair into a tight ponytail with two strands teased out. I put a couple of hair pins in too, to keep stray hairs in place.

I heard the door for the front entrance ring, and I went to answer it. The party was about to begin.

"Oh Reaver, stop it!" I heard a playful voice say through the door, where the party was in full swing.

"Come on now my little minx…" was Reaver's reply. Honestly, it was enough to make somebody violently ill, including myself.

I slowly crept in, delivered the last platter of food and hurried out before Reaver noticed my existence. It was like a zoo inside, with every man and woman dancing, drinking, eating and generally having fun. All wore masks to hide their identities, which seemed rather pointless. I mean, they were all nobles that lived in Millfields; it wouldn't be hard to work out who was who. Reaver was in the middle of it all, with several men and women trying to get close and dance with him.

I could see one man, standing by the food table ignoring everyone apart from the lady beside him. Both looked like they would rather be anywhere else, and were grateful for the extra food I had put down. Neither of them were that fat, so they must exercise a lot. The man looked at me oddly and tilted his head, trying to think. I felt uncomfortable, so I excused myself and left.

I closed the doors behind me, and heaved a large sigh. I hoped I'd be able to find the rebels before the next one, so I didn't have to suffer through another one of those hideous things. But now was a very good time to search the manor to find Page's men, since I had no chores to do and nobody would catch me snooping. Reaver was very much occupied and Mr Hatch was once again doing Reaver's paperwork for him, so he'd be stuck in his room all night finishing it, by the looks of how high the unread pile was compared to the read pile when I came in to give him a cup of tea and saw it.

I decided to go to the west wing of the manor, as I hadn't seen much of that part so far and for good reason- this was where Reaver's bedroom and study were. Luckily, I was told by Mr Hatch that Reaver never slept in his room at these parties, since they usually stay in the dining room and ball room and not the west wing.

Reaver's room was very elegant, with intricate red swirled wallpaper. There was a fire which had just recently gone out in the fireplace, and he had a very comfortable looking four-poster bed, with the Reaver Industries insignia on the duvet. There were some luxury wardrobes and two large bookcases that I doubted were even touched, due to all the dust on them.

As I was scanning the dust coated books covers, I noticed something odd. All of the books hadn't been touched- apart from one, quite recently in fact, since there was no dust on it at all. The spine had no writing on it, so I pulled the book out to inspect it. There was a loud CRACK, and before I knew it the bookcase was moving to the right to reveal a secret passageway that was as elegant as Reaver's room. There were even more portraits of Reaver on the wall, and a chicken ran past my legs and out through the bookcase door to freedom. I smiled. I wish I could escape from this place like that chicken will.

Down the passageway, there were three doors. I opened the first one, which was truly horrific, with used condoms everywhere along with some of people's unmentionables to go with them. The bed in the middle of the room was hideously stained. I couldn't see any revolutionists, so I got the heck out and tried some other doors.

The second door was quite boring, only containing crates piled high to the wall. Inside was vintage wine, which must have cost a fortune. This, I presumed, was where Reaver kept the good stuff, only to be touched on special occasions. As I left, I slipped on some alcohol which was slowly leaking out of a crate, making a satisfyingly loud thud on the floor. "Ouch," I said, rubbing my rear where I had slipped.

"Hello? Is somebody there?"

I let out a yelp and hid, thinking the worst- one of Reaver's party guests had gone to his room, seen the passageway and heard me slip. I hid behind some crates peeking once, only to see that nobody was in the passageway.

The voice spoke again. "Look, we've been here two weeks, and we're starving. If you're going to keep us prisoner to get information, you should probably keep us alive."

Prisoner? I slowly stood up from where I was hiding and followed the voice to behind the third door. It was locked, so instead I peeked through the keyhole. I couldn't see much, but I could make out two figures tied up. I'd never tried picking locks, but how hard could it be?

Okay scratch that, very hard. I gave up using some pins in my hair and decided to just find some food and drink. There was a large gap under the door, so two small bottles of Reaver's finest managed to squeeze through, and after running down to the kitchen and sneaking some food I put that under as well. The men sounded grateful.

"Oh, thank you so much!"

"Yeah, thanks!"

"So… are you Page's men?" I asked carefully.

A deep voiced man answered. "…How did you know that? Did Reaver tell you?"

"No, Page did. I was sent here to find you, but weren't there meant to be five of you?"

The other one answered this time. He wasn't as deep voiced, and he sounded very serious. "There were… but not all of us made it. Reaver didn't need to keep all of us, so he killed the other three. I suppose he wants information so he can kiss up to Logan, but we haven't given him any. Oh, I'm Jack, by the way. Jack Timmins and this is Kidd Marsh."

They seemed like really nice guys. "I'm Emily. Are either of you hurt?"

"Both of us are, pretty badly at that. It's your usual broken ribs and fingers," replied Kidd.

"Okay, well don't worry; I'll get you out soon. In the meantime, I'll try and get food to you." They threw over the now empty bottles for me to hide. We said our goodbyes, and I hurried out, being sure to close doors and leave everything the way it was before I entered. I decided to go grab some food from the kitchen before going to sleep.

Mr Hatch was in the kitchen with a pen and paper. "Hello, Mr Hatch. What're you doing?"

"I'm seeing what things we need to stock up on, so I'll head into Bowerstone market tomorrow. Okay… yep, I think this is everything." The list was two pages long, with some of the things on the list I'd never even heard of.

I instantly thought of a plan. "If you want, Mr Hatch, I can get those things for you."

He smiled at me. "Really? You don't mind? I must admit I do have a lot of paperwork…"

I took the paper from him. "Good, so it's settled then!"

"All the items on there can be found-" He pointed to a column on the left "-In these places." We were very close by then, and then he suddenly very quickly stepped away. "Sorry! I, um, I should go…"

"Are you okay, Mr Hatch?"

"No, not really, but don't worry."

I put a hand on his arm. "But I do. You've been a good friend since I've been here, and I appreciate that, so you can talk to me. I've been told I'm a good listener."

"…Friend, huh?"

"Yes."

He looked into my eyes, and I thought he was about to say something, until he decided against it, and walked off leaving me alone in the kitchen. If only he had said what he wanted to then, things might have been different.

I was exhausted after the night of Reaver's party, and collapsed onto my bed, when I felt something hard on my back. I rolled over to see an envelope, with '_Emily' _written on it. I hastily opened it, and saw on the back, _'I hope you appreciate how hard it was to get this to you!' _I opened it and began reading.

_'Emily,_

_We haven't heard from you, so I hope everything is OK. At least I know you're still alive (That's something). Reaver is quite the dog, so I hope he hasn't… tried anything._

_It's been weird without you at the house, I had almost gotten used to a free maid. Needless to say, the house is once again the proud owner of sky-high dirty dishes. I've been busy, and you will be too when you get back! That is if you're still staying with me, I understand if you move into the resistance headquarters. But, it was be a sad day to see you go._

_Page is an interesting character, though I haven't had the pleasure of pleasuring her. I don't know why I just told you that. Anyway, she's been on the edge, since you've gone. I think she liked one of the men that went on the mission, the way she goes on about this 'Kidd' person._

_Annabel and Walter say hi, they've been helping more oppressed people of Bowerstone, and she seems to be doing alright. Annabel always wants to talk about you; I think she's very worried about you. We all are._

_Come back safe, __I miss__ we miss you._

_Ben.'_

_~Authors Note~_

YAY! Another one done! Hope you guys like it, It's a little ruder than usual, but that's just because it's Reaver ^_^

So, SCHOOL. It is a terrible time for writing, and does mean that I may have to update a bit less than usual, because I've got a TON of new classes along with finishing old ones, so life going to get very hectic. However DO NOT FEAR! I will try my very best to update, and I've got a plan for the next couple of chapters.

Thank you for reading, and please follow and review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fable! However I do own Emily. Yay.


	11. Maid it a day out

Mr Hatch dropped some coins into my hand. "This should be enough for everything, and here is the receipt for the books Reaver ordered, just give it to the man and he'll know what to do. And-"He took out an envelope, containing even more gold inside, "This is your pay, to be spent however you like. I'd like you back by no later than two o'clock."

I nodded. It had now been exactly one week since I had been at Reaver's mansion, and I had successfully found what was remaining of the rebels; Tim and Kidd. I had to wake up at a ridiculous hour to sneak some food and give it to them along with drink. It around eight in the morning and the shops were opening, so I was making my way down to Bowerstone market and pick up a few things for the fool, before sneaking into the rebel's headquarters to talk to Page. "Thank you," I said to Mr Hatch, "I'll be as prompt as possible."

He smiled. "Hey, don't worry about it too much. Reaver's servants don't tend to get out very much; go see friends and buy some things for yourself! I'll cover for you here."

I hurried out of the door into the bright sunshine and smiled. It was going to be a truly fantastic day.

* * *

_~Third Person~_

Barry Hatch closed the door for Miss Emily, and sighed. The poor girl didn't have a clue what was about to happen.

"I thought she'd never find out about the rebels!" a voiced called out from behind Barry. It was Reaver, dressed in a red robe, and hopefully with underwear underneath, although he couldn't tell.

"I don't think we should do this, Master Reaver," Said Barry uneasily.

"Oh, hush Hatch. It's just a bit of fun, and you did your part _very _well. To think Page would send a spy into my own home… her loss. Soon the disobedient wretch of a princess will be here, and I'll make sure it stays this way."

"… You're planning on killing Emily and Page and marrying Princess Annabel, aren't you?!" Barry cried out.

He had no idea what had really been going on, he'd just thought Reaver was just going to sleep with Emily and be done with it. Although, that theory didn't make sense with what Reaver had been making him do for the past week. Keeping certain doors unlocked, telling her little snippets of information, preparing more parties than usual and prompting her to go into town, it all seemed… odd.

"Oh, Hatch, you are a bumbling fool. I would have shot you by now but you're the best assistant I've had. Of course I am. And I'm having fun with it. I think it's time to call up some… certain friends of ours, and explain our marvellous plan for six days' time."

_'Oh, Reaver,'_ Barry thought, _'one of these days, I'll escape from here, and perhaps be worthy enough for Emily to call me a friend. And then, perhaps one person will be strong enough to kill you.'_

Barry walked away to do his daily chores, all the while thinking about what Reaver had asked him to do next, a hideous betrayal. He didn't have friends because of his job, and Emily was the closest thing he had to one.

"Barry," Reaver said, "I want you to kill Miss Emily."

* * *

_~Normal~_

It was unfortunate that even while out of the manor; I had to wear the very short maid uniform. I was going to have SO much teasing from Ben when I got to the rebel's headquarter. After a short trek to get to the market, I was instantly comforted by the feeling of familiarity. There were market stalls everywhere and people milling around and browsing. I wanted to have as much time as possible to talk to Page and the others so I got the shopping done as fast as possible and hurried to the shop which was holding onto Reaver's journals. By then, I had completely used up all of Reaver's money.

By then I had two full and heavy boxes. I sighed, I was going to have to get a carriage home, there was no way I could take all this and walk back. The bell ringed as I opened the door, and an elderly man appeared from the back. I handed him the receipt, and he scuttled off most likely to storage. The store sold beautiful little items like gifts and such.

By the entrance stood a beautiful lute in impeccable condition, and I was entranced, trailing my hand down each curved edge and plucking each string. It had intricate swirling patterns on it that looked to be done in gold. I had never learnt to play the lute. When I asked my Dad if he knew somebody that could teach me, he said lute playing was for beggars on the streets. This was towards the time I left home.

There was a price tag on it; 500 gold?! I look at my envelope- there was only around 100 in there. I stood disheartened until the man came back with two journals that like the lute were lined in gold. I thanked the man and left, wishing for that lute.

I looked at the clock to see what the time was. It had just gone 11, so I hurried down to Industrial. It was the same dull lifeless faces that I passed hurrying down to the headquarters. Several people gawked at my attire; I suppose it was pretty awful. A drunk walked past and tried a hand to my rear, but a sharp kick to the groin stopped him doing so.

I eventually got to the entrance of the sewers, and carefully tried to sidestep around the mess on the floor; Reaver would probably kill me if I messed up my uniform, or ask questions about my whereabouts, both would be problematic. There were several people milling around, a group of men practicing shooting and one man on his own dealing with some serious amount of paperwork. Neither Annabel nor Walter seemed to be around, so I went up to where I had met Page earlier and knocked. "Come in," Page called through the door.

I slowly opened the door and crept in. Page was in adventuring clothing dyed a deep green, it suited her. She turned her head to see who her visitor was, and her expression was a mix of happiness and confusion. "Emily! I'm glad to see you're okay… what's with the clothes? Reaver?"

I nodded. "Reaver, He's been driving me up the wall."

"At least he hasn't shot you yet, I'd call that a good day. So what news do you have?"

"I found where Reaver has been hiding your rebels… but not all of them made it."

Page drew in a sharp breath. "Who's left?"

"Jack Timmins and Kidd Marsh."

Page let go of her breath very slowly, I could still tell that she was relieved that Kidd was alive. Ben must have been right about her liking Kidd. "May Avo look after them for us. Right, we need to plan a rescue. You'll sneak Annabel and me into the manor. Keep Reaver distracted somehow, and we'll do the rest, we shouldn't be long. Then you need to get out. Grab everything in your room and run. When should we do this…?"

"He's having a party in six days, perhaps then?"

Page grabbed some paper and began scrawling down something whilst talking. "It's a plan. I'll send a message onto you in a couple of days' time about exact details. You should be getting back soon."

Picking up the boxes, I began to exit. "Emily," Page said. I turned. "Be careful."

* * *

I was out on the street again, checking the time. It was 12:30, so I had to get going if I was going to get a carriage back to Millfields. However a familiar mop of blonde hair through the window of the Industrial pub made me stop, and I thought, _'Quick pint?'_ I walked in and saw that it _was _him.

"Ben," I called out.

He turned around and saw me by the front door. "Emily!" he rushed up to me and pulled me into a hug, spinning me around. Once again, I was turning bright pink from the joy of him holding me. Oh Avo, what am I going to do about this? He eventually let me go and grinned. "What are you doing here? And-" He looked at what I was wearing. "Why are you wearing that? Don't get me wrong, if you would wear that at my house I'd-"

I interrupted. "It's my uniform. I finally managed to get out of Reaver's house so I went to go see Page."

He cocked his head. "Oh, did you find the rebels?"

"Yes- oh, well, I found what was left of the five. Reaver killed three of them."

"Not Kidd!"

"No, Kidd is fine, apart from a couple of broken bones. I think you're right about him and Page, maybe there's something going on between them?"

"Oh, but that means I don't stand a chance!" He sighed dramatically. "Alas, Page won't be another one of my conquests…"

I slapped him playfully on the arm. "Ben! A little tact when talking about the rebel's leader may be a good idea!"

He offered to hold my boxes for Reaver and we headed back down to Bowerstone Market, where I could get a carriage.

"So… where's Swiftie?" I asked Ben.

"Swiftie, eh? He said you could call him that?" I nodded. "Last thing I heard, he was searching for more followers for the revolution, but that's a dangerous business. Logan's stamped a staggering bounty price on our pretty little heads."

We walked past the shop where I had gotten Reaver's journals, and the lute was still sat by the entrance. I hadn't realised that I had stopped to stare at it more.

"Emily?"

I shook out of my daydream and caught up with Ben, who had now turned back to see what I was looking at. I pointed to the lute. "It's beautiful," I sighed, "but I don't have the money for it." I walked on, still thinking about that lute. We managed to find a carriage waiting. I remembered that I had used up all of Reaver's money so I pulled out my gold in my envelope, until Ben stopped me and handed over some of his own money.

I sat down next to the two heavy boxes Ben had put down, and looked at him standing awkwardly. "Uh, I guess this is goodbye for now," I said. "Go easy on Page, okay? It must be difficult being a female leader."

"Ah, but of course we wouldn't want our Industrial rebel to back out of our plans now, would we?"

"And Annabel, make sure she's okay too. I'm counting on you." He nodded, before grabbing the carriage door to shut it.

"Stay safe, and get out soon," Ben said, looking worried. "It's no fun without you at home."

And when he said that, I knew that I had fallen crazily, headfirst in love with Captain Benjamin Finn. Every smile, touch, tease, quirk, and joke made my stomach make little belly flips. And the way he said 'home', truly made me feel like I belonged somewhere. I had a home. I hadn't felt like that in years, not fully. And now I felt sick, thinking about going to Reaver's when the only place I wanted to be was where he was, in his little house in Industrial, him crashed on the sofa and me making dinner, like a family.

I truly am an idiot. Somebody should have shot me and put me out of my misery.

However, I hid all my emotions and smiled, "Don't worry; I'll be out of there in six days. I'll see you soon."

The carriage began to move, and I was on my was to Millfields, leaving Ben to get smaller and smaller, as I made my way back to the manor- back to Reaver. We were fortunate to not come across any mercenaries along the trip, so my gun stayed strapped to my thigh, and I enjoyed the stunning views of Bower Lake.

The carriage halted, and I got out with the boxes and opened the door to Lakeview manor.

"Hello? Mr Hatch?" I called out, and he came out of the study.

"Did you get everything?"

"Yes, everything's in there." I handed the boxes over to him. He told me about a couple of chores that needed doing and what to cook for dinner tonight. He then left with the boxes leaving me to start my chores, so I got to it.

* * *

_~Third Person~_

_Two days later…_

By the time Emily had finished her long list of chores, it was dark, and Reaver was finishing his meal. She took the empty plates (and tensed up when Reaver had another go at her lower-half, he'd had an entire bottle of wine to himself that evening) and made her way down to the kitchen to do the washing up before going to bed with a small glass of the cheapest wine Reaver wouldn't touch.

Barry was in there, filing up a cup with tea. "Hello Mr Hatch," Emily said, "Have you finished work yet?"

"I've done enough for tonight, yes. Oh, I forgot to ask- how was your day out?"

"It was good, I liked getting out of the house."

"Meet anyone _special_?" He teased, but he saw Emily's face go bright pink. "Aha! There is somebody! Who's the lucky guy?"

She smiled, and thought it would have been best to tell a little bit of truth. "He's… a soldier. We're good friends, but he doesn't know that I lo- _like _him," she corrected herself. "He carried Reaver's things for me."

"I'm sure he'll come to his senses soon and run into your arms, so long as he's not carrying obscene amounts of Reaver's things again, that could get messy. Did you buy anything with your wages?"

Emily told Barry about the beautiful lute she saw, and how she wanted to learn to play. Barry at that point, ran out of the kitchen, yelling "wait in the study!" behind him. Emily went down, where there was a warm flickering fire roasting away. She slumped in an armchair, sipping some wine and waiting for Barry.

He came into the study, carrying a battered but working lute, and a large grin on his face. "I can teach you a few things if you'd like? I may be a bit rusty."

Emily matched his grin and sat on the carpet by the fire. For an hour they were there, Emily holding the lute and Barry pointing at each string. It was slow going and there were a lot of bum notes, but at the end of it Emily could play a few simple chords.

"Thank you so much Barry!" Emily cried, pulling him into a hug. He laughed, and hugged her back. But there was a nagging feeling in his mind. '_I want you to kill Miss Emily' _kept circling in his mind. He knew he couldn't kill her. But if he didn't, Reaver would- and he'd kill Barry too.

Emily went back to her room, and once again there was a letter on her bed. She immediately assumed that it was Page's letter, and it was.

_'Miss Emily,_

_I hope you are well. I have talked to the others, and there had been a slight change of plan. Captain Finn will also –unfortunately- be joining us in this rescue mission, just to make him stop complaining._

_We will be at Reaver's manor at two in the morning, and you will open the main door for us. By then Reaver should be drunk and unconscious, so we can go to where __Kid__ our men are and release them._

_It should be an in-and-out mission, but just in case bring your gun and sword._

_Good Luck._

_Page._

_PS: Burn this letter.'_

Emily obeyed, and after looking at the letter a couple of times, she lit a fire and burnt it. So, Ben was coming. Emily's stomach began the belly-flips again, and she struggled to contain her excitement of seeing him again.

* * *

_~Normal~_

"Hey Tim, hey Kidd," I said, before slipping in some food and drink for them. They were looking a little better; they still had a lot of bruises, but they weren't starving.

"Thanks Em," Tim said. That was what they called me now, 'Em'. I liked it, it had a certain ring to it. I sat there and waited for them to finish their dinner.

"You know, I really can't wait for this revolution to be over," Kidd said. "This torture thing is getting kind of boring."

"What will you guys do after the revolution then?" I asked.

There was a long pause, and then Tim spoke up. "The army… I'd like to join up, and be a bit like Sir Walter. You know him, don't you Em?"

I laughed. "He's like a Father to me. I'll introduce him to you one day."

He seemed pleased and excited. "Maybe he'll take me under his wing!"

"What will you do Kidd?"

"Confess my love for Page."

This surprised me. "Really? You're just going to say it to her, you wouldn't be scared?"

"Nah, it'll be like ripping off a bandage. But I think she likes me too."

"I wish I had the courage to do that…" I mumbled. Kidd and Tim had finished their meal, so I took the empty plates and glasses and hid them with the others.

"What about you Emily? What will you do?"

I thought hard about this one. What would I do? I know what I want to do, but I also had my duties. It would be selfish to leave them behind to follow my dreams. To travel, see the world, play music… Or be a maid.

"Emily?"

I sighed. "I am, and will be a maid. That is my duty, and all I will do."

"That sounds lonely," Kidd said.

I sighed again. "Sometimes."

* * *

_~Authors Note~_

Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while since I've updated, I've had one illness after the next.

So I thought I'd let you know about Jack Timmins. Some of you may know, but to those that don't, Jack is in the Fable book _Fable: Edge of the world_, But that's all I'm going to tell you… muahaha… don't worry! Things will be clearer later in the story.

Next up is Reaver's party! Hope you enjoyed this chapter

MM.


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